'Every mile of dead flying costs a fortune'

摘要

As of September 1, the Antonov-124 is no longer welcome in Australia. In March the Australian government moved to ban noisy aircraft, which applies to B727 freighters as well as the AN-124. The first stage of the new legislation, which came into effect on July 1, banned new services with hush-kitted planes; phase two put an end to all existing noisy plane flights at Australia's major airports.rnThe 150-tonne Ruslan has made steady, but not exactly numerous appearances Down Under. Shaun Aisen, executive director of Australian charter broker and aircraft operator Strategic Aviation, put the annual number of AN-124 flights in Australia at between 12 and 20. Bringing it in from Europe costs about $1 million, and there is only a limited number of airstrips in Western Australia that can accommodate the aircraft, he says.