The An-225 Mriya super-heavy transport aircraft, which has a carrying capacity of 250 tonnes, and the An-124-100 Ruslan heavy transport aircraftwith a carrying capacity of 150 tonnes of Antonov Airlines (Kyiv) have transported special commercial cargo in the interests of foreign customers, the press service of Antonov State Enterprise reported on Wednesday.

The state enterprise said that the Ukrainian Ruslan aircraft in June delivered wind turbine blades for a power plant from Wichita (the United States) to Skrydstrup (Denmark) under an order of Geodis Wilson Denmark A/S for Germany's Siemens.

"Taking into account the dimensions of the blade [35.40х3.67х3.50 meters], only the An-124-100 aircraft was able to effectively carry the cargo, as its cargo cabin length is 36.40 meters," reads the report.

"Specialists from all of the sides involved in the project worked on the technology for loading the long and outsized cargo, and the aircraft was prepared for this. The flight was planned and performed in the required term under the approved schedule. This allowed the customer to start testing the blade in the shortest period of time," the state enterprise said.

The press service said that in June, the An-225 Mriya also performed several flights. The Ukrainian super-heavy transport aircraft carried outsized equipment for shipbuilding from Manchester (Britain) to Seoul (South Korea) under an order Korean Express GmbH for Samsung Heavy Industries Co, Ltd. Special equipment designed by Antonov specialists was used during the loading and unloading of the equipment, reads the report.

At the end of June, an An-225 Mriya aircraft delivered industrial equipment with a total weight of 140 tonnes from Seoul to Basel Airport (France/Switzerland) under an order of Chapman Freeborn.

"The An-225 aircraft carried equipment, performing one flight in the shortest terms, and more cheaply than if the An-124-100 Ruslan carried the cargo in two flights," Antonov said.

Antonov Airlines is one of the leading international operators of An-124-100 Ruslan. Its fleet includes seven An-124-100 Ruslan aircraft and one An-225 Mriya super-heavy transport aircraft.

Since 2006, the company has been participating in the NATO SALIS (Strategic Airlift Interim Solution). In December 2012, NATO prolonged the contract for the leasing of Ukrainian and Russian Ruslan aircraft until December 31, 2014.