Russian media reports suggest that production of the Antonov An-124, the largest commercial aircraft to be mass-produced, could be about to recommence. Talk of a resumption in production first surfaced at the Berlin air show in 2008, but there has been no clear indication from Antonov’s parent company, United Aircraft as to when exactly the aircraft maker would resume the production of the heavy-lift aircraft.

Antonov An-124s have been a workhorse of the heavy airfreight sector with a payload of up to 150 tonnes of cargo, it can also carry 88 passengers in an upper deck behind the wing section. Introduced into service in 1986, only 56 of the aircraft were made – originally produced in Ulyanovsk in Russia and Kiev in Ukraine.