Volga-Dnepr Airlines completes outsized transport job for ExxonMobil

VOLGA-DNEPR Airlines has completed one of its biggest-ever air logistics projects involving 88 cargo flights to transport 6,000 tons of equipment over a period of 103 days to the ExxonMobil-operated LNG Project in Papua New Guinea.

The airline's AN-124-100 aircraft operated all of the flights from Port Moresby Airport to the PNG LNG Project's newly constructed Komo Airfield. The aircraft carried equipment for the PNG LNG Project's Hides Gas Conditioning Plant in the highlands of the island state.

With each component averaging 60 tons in weight, including oversized shipments requiring individual handling solutions, the company's engineers created a special loading process to carefully place the pieces of equipment into the cargo hold. Additional work was conducted by the airline to minimise the empty weight of the AN-124-100 aircraft, tooling and packaging equipment to maximise the opportunities offered by the freighter's cargo capacity.

For these flights, special loading equipment was developed and manufactured by Volga-Dnepr and a special trailer was leased to simplify the loading and offloading of cargo, reducing the need to use cranes. This cut the time required to load and offload cargo; and solutions were developed to ensure the appropriate maintenance of aircraft at Port Moresby airport over the course of the project.

Said Volga-Dnepr vice president Dennis Gliznoutsa: "This project was complex and an interesting logistics challenge. Papua New Guinea is a country that has challenging climatic conditions, including highlands with frequent fog."