Three Russian giant An-124 "Ruslan" cargo planes are still unable to fly back to their homeland from Leipzig/Halle Airport, where they have been located since February 2022.
Since 2004, the Russian airline Volga-Dnepr has been transporting air cargo under contract to NATO. In 2012, in cooperation with Leipzig/Halle Airport, a hangar was built to service the An-124, with investments of around 20 million euros.
A special company was created to carry out repairs and maintenance, providing employment for around 250 specialists in Germany.
But after the introduction of a ban on flights by Russian aircraft in February 2022, the company broke up, the repair shop was closed, and its employees were dismissed this year. The management company of the Saxony airport lost millions in revenue.
Three An-124 aircraft of the Volga-Dnepr Group were at Leipzig/Halle Airport for maintenance when the flight ban was introduced. Since then, they have no longer been allowed to take off, and their future remains unclear.
Earlier www1.ru reported that Rostec declassified the heat resistance of the blades of the PD-8 and PD-14 aircraft engines.