Eurasian Integration Yearbook 2012

Advanced Economic Cooperationin Sectors and Industriesthan 50% of all mail transported by air. The market leader is DHL. Expertsestimate that 60%-75% of express mail is flown to international destinations.The ramp aviation 1 segment handles transportation of outsize and heavycargoes, machinery or other freights that cannot be transported in standard airfreightcontainers for whatever reason. The leaders in this segment are Volga-Dnepr and Polet, whose fleets include ramp aircraft such as the IL-76 and theAN-124 Ruslan.As at the beginning of 2011, EurAsEC had 99 functioning international airports,49 of which (49.5%) were assigned ICAO categories (see Table 10.11).Categorised aerodromes *Table 10.11.EurAsEC’sinternationalairports, includingICAO categoryaerodromesSource: CIS (2007)Note: *Airports withrunways havingICAO categoriesCountryTotal international airportsCategoryTotalI II IIIABelarus 7 1 - 1 -Kazakhstan 16 7 4 1 2Kyrgyzstan 2 1 1 - -Russia 72 39 26 10 3Tajikistan 2 1 1 - -Total EurAsEC 99 49 32 12 5Less than one third of EurAsEC’s international airports are suitable for longrangecargo aircraft with heavy takeoff weights such as the McDonnell-DouglasMD-11 and the Boeing-747 (various versions). The technical characteristics,including lighting and radio facilities, of Almaty, Astana, Domodedovo(Moscow), Yemelyanovo (Krasnoyarsk), Kazan, Koltsovo (Yekaterinburg),Knevichi (Vladivostok), Tolmachevo (Novosibirsk), Sheremetyevo (Moscow)and Novy (Khabarovsk) airports make it possible for them to become Europe-Asia cargo hubs. The majority of these airports have undergone extensiveupgrading and construction work in 2005-2011.As mentioned above, EurAsEC’s airlines compete very successfully with foreignair carriers. However, foreign companies continue to expand their operationsin the region. The largest foreign airline handling EurAsEC’s international cargois Lufthansa. Lufthansa Cargo carries 1.8 million tonnes of freight a year, upto 25% of which is transported from Germany to Asia Pacific destinations.1Ramp aviation is an airlift system using ramp aircraft. A ramp aircraft has a special front or rear ramp so that the transportedor loading machines can drive on board. Ramp aircrafts are widely used in military aviation and are irreplaceable in civilaviation where outsize and heavy items need to be transported.176 EDB Eurasian Integration Yearbook 2012