The board of the U.S. government’s EXIM Bank has approved a $339 million loan for Azerbaijan’s Silk Way Airlines to purchase Boeing aircraft. The planes are scheduled for delivery by summer 2026.
Despite multiple credible media reports linking Silk Way to arms transportation, this did not deter the U.S. bank from approving the deal, according to RFE/RL.
Silk Way is widely regarded as connected to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
Initial details of the deal surfaced in January 2024, when EXIM Bank launched a public consultation on the financing package. The exact number of aircraft has not been disclosed.
Among the loan’s guarantors are Spain’s Santander Bank and the U.S.-based Private Export Funding Corporation (PEFCO). The bank has declined to comment on the deal’s specifics.
Key figures managing the transaction on behalf of EXIM include advisor David Golden, Transport Division Vice President David Fiorini, and loan officer Cheryl Conlin. Conlin had participated in a virtual forum hosted by the U.S. Embassy in Baku in April 2021, where American officials and business representatives presented new logistics technologies and financing options. Delegates from Turkey and Georgia also attended to discuss East-West transit routes.
In 2017, Conlin took part in another event in Azerbaijan organized by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, showcasing projects financed by EXIM.
In November 2023, an EXIM Bank delegation visited Baku to attend COP29, underlining ongoing U.S. economic engagement in the region, despite persistent concerns about the airline’s activities.
Silk Way has drawn global scrutiny for arms deliveries and opaque financial arrangements.
RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani service first reported in 2010 that one of the airline’s main shareholders was the Aliyev family. The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) highlighted in 2018 that EXIM had provided Silk Way with $420 million in 2014 to acquire three Boeing 747-8 freighters, with the International Bank of Azerbaijan as guarantor. In 2017, EXIM financed another $1 billion deal for ten additional Boeings.
In 2022, The Washington Post revealed that during the height of the Afghanistan war, Azerbaijan allowed U.S. and allied forces to use its airspace in exchange for diplomatic benefits and $369 million in Silk Way contracts.
Retired U.S. Air Force generals Duncan McNabb and William Fraser, previously in charge of supply logistics from 2008 to 2014, later signed lucrative consulting deals with Silk Way, raising questions about potential conflicts of interest. The Pentagon and State Department usually do not block such collaborations, but in Azerbaijan’s case, national security concerns were raised, according to the newspaper.
Silk Way actively participated in Azerbaijan’s military campaigns against Artsakh in 2020 and 2023. Hetq reported that in August–September 2023, before the ethnic cleansing in September, the airline made four flights from Israel’s Ovda airbase to Baku carrying explosives. Similar shipments occurred during the 2020 war, sourced from Israel, Turkey, and Afghanistan.
In a 2021 investigation, OCCRP revealed Silk Way’s involvement in transporting 100 tons of weapons to the Republic of the Congo, where opposition groups claimed the arms were used to suppress protests.
Earlier reports indicated Silk Way continued flights from Israel to Azerbaijan. According to Hetq, six such flights were recorded from Ovda to Baku in Q1 2025. Haaretz previously reported Ovda is used for transporting explosive weaponry.
