Oleksandr Los, the president of legendary Kyiv-based aircraft manufacturer Antonov Company, resigned on Nov. 4 after just five months in office.
Later in the day, his resignation was accepted by Ihor Fomenko, the acting head of UkrOboronProm, the state-run defense production concern to which Antonov belongs. The discharge order states that Los left the post at his own volition.
Then, on the afternoon of Nov. 5, Los was replaced by acting director-general Serhiy Buchkov, who held the position of Antonov’s chief executive director until recently.
“We hope that (Los) is going to keep working at the enterprise as the deputy director general for design engineering,” UkrOboronProm commented later in the day.
Los took charge of Antonov in June after then-director general Oleksandr Donets was fired following a comprehensive audit at the enterprise, which was launched after Ukraine’s SBU security agency notified the country’s government that the Antonov top management could have “damaged the national interests of Ukraine via inactivity and consistently unsystematic managerial actions.”
“The inspection revealed numerous facts that might indicate ineffective management… the improper use of public properties, abuses and violations by the (enterprise’s) leadership that could lead to serious public losses and inflict considerable damage to the largest aviation manufacturer of Ukraine,” UkrOboronProm later said of the situation, adding that the inspection results might contain evidence of corruption-related crimes.
A visitor takes of a picture of the Antonov An-225 aircraft taking off at the Hostomel airfield near Kyiv on Apr. 11, 2020. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin)
According to numerous sources in the industry, UkrOboronProm’s then-top management led by Aivaras Abromavicius persistently pushed for Donets’ firing, citing his allegedly weak leadership and Antonov’s declining economic output.
In 2019, according to financial reports, Antonov’s net profit dropped 3.5 times to Hr 448 million ($15.8 million), while overall revenue fell by 33% to Hr 998 million ($35.3 million).
Nearly 80% of the enterprise’s income still comes from Antonov’s cargo transportation division, Antonov Airlines, which operates a number of famous heavy transport aircraft, such as the Antonov An-124 Ruslan and An-224 Mriya — the heaviest aircraft ever built and the biggest one among currently operated.
Recently, however, Antonov has managed to finally win a $65 million contract to produce a brand new aircraft, the An-178, for the Peruvian police. Moreover, according to UkrOboronProm acting director general Ihor Fomenko, Peru is considering purchasing one more aircraft in 2021.
Following the Sept. 25 crash of an Antonov An-26Sh military aircraft near the airfield of Chuhuiv, Ukraine’s Ministry for Strategic Industries also announced a contract to produce at least three new An-178s for the country military. It is expected to be signed by the end of 2020.
Under UkrOboronProm’s ongoing reorganization, Antonov is supposed to be removed from the jurisdiction of the country’s state-run military-grade production system and instead associated with the country’s space rocket enterprises, which will be incorporated into a giant holding company preliminarily named “Aerospace Systems of Ukraine.”
