A big and unusual visitor has taken off less than a day after arriving in Auckland.
The Antonov AN-124 arrived yesterday for a private, specialist freight movement.
Bradley Peters, 16, was among the crowd waiting to see the Antonov Airlines plane take off at Auckland Airport this morning.
“It’s not often it comes here so I want to make the most of it,” he said.
“I’m a passionate aviation photographer and photographer in general.”
He was hoping to get a shot of black smoke trails and the back of the aircraft’s engines.
In June 2020, an Antonov 124 operated by Volga Dnepr flew in from Singapore with Rolls-Royce engines for Air New Zealand’s Dreamliners.
There was speculation the latest trip was also related to airline parts but Air NZ has not confirmed that and Auckland Airport would not say what the cargo was.
Antonov Airlines is the operator of the latest Antonov visitor to Auckland.
In 2024, Antonov delivered a yacht for the America’s Cup.
Antonov Airlines is a division of Antonov Company, headquartered in Kyiv, Ukraine.
It is a Ukrainian state-owned enterprise with a fleet including five AN-124-100 “Ruslan” aircraft, one with a payload of up to 150 tonnes.
“We are the only airline to use a flight manager on each aircraft, providing you with a dedicated point of contact during loading and offloading of cargo,” the airline said on its website.
The cargo airline said it had also transported helicopters, satellites and a rotor for a power plant.
The Antonov is the largest cargo aircraft currently in regular service, with the tallest and widest cargo load, but the Airbus A380 has a bigger wingspan at 79.8m.
Another possible contender for the title of world’s largest aircraft is the Airlander 10, a bulbous 95m long hybrid airship nicknamed “The Flying Bum”.
According to Volga Dnepr, the Antonov 124 has a range at maximum payload of 4500km and a maximum flight range of 14,000km.
It needs a runway at least 3000m long. In New Zealand, only Auckland and Christchurch have runways that long.
The Flightradar24 website shortly after midday showed the Antonov at 33,000 feet (10,058m) heading north-northeast, towards Fiji.
UPDATED: Giant Antonov AN-124 mystery cargo revealed?
During the 1998 Auckland power crisis, distributor Mercury Energy turned to Antonov aircraft to help solve the problem.
Paul de Abaitua was project director for Mercury Energy’s power restoration project.
“We had nine rotations of the Antonov flying to Auckland with diesel generators from around the world,” de Abaitua said.
“Great plane and could not have installed 80MW of temporary generation without the Antonov,” he added.
He shared photographs of the Antonov landing in Auckland and the generators being offloaded.
Wired magazine soon after the crisis said Mercury even got permission from the rock group U2 to borrow an Antonov 124 to transport giant generators from Australia.
“U2 was performing in Sydney, and didn’t need the plane to ship their concert gear for another couple of days,” the story added.
John Weekes is a business journalist covering aviation. He previously covered consumer affairs, crime, politics and courts.