Parking for $ 330,000 Parking: Russian An-124 is idle at Canada Airport for more than a year
He landed at the Toronto-Pirson Airport on February 27, three years after the large-scale invasion of Russian troops into Ukraine began. Since then, the AN-125, which belongs to the air carrier from the Russian Federation "Volga-Dnipro" and remained on the runway. During the last flight, the aircraft transported personal protective equipment from China. Now the administration of the airport wants to get rid of it.
A lawyer Bill Clark, who specializes in aviation issues, whose firm was hired from the fears that Russia can use this aircraft in the war, says that it is necessary to watch how it just rusts at the airport. It is a large aircraft and occupies a significant place for parking, for which the Pickon airport administration charges 58 cents per minute.
Canada authorities do not plan to make a ban on the Russian Federation in the near future, and the Russian Embassy did not respond to the journalists' request for comments. The Volga-Dnipro airline, which owns a plane, wants to pick it up, but cannot even get permission to direct their mechanics to maintain the aircraft.
According to Guy Nicholson, a spokesman for the administration of the Great Toronto agglomeration airports, the problem is that the aircraft occupies a place where other liners are usually directed before departure. Antonov planes Antonov An-124 "Ruslan" is the development of the 80s, designed in Ukraine during the USSR. A total of about 55 such specimens were released. After the invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine in 2022, these liners were renamed.
One of them is now called "Be Brave Like Kherson", in honor of a city liberated by the Ukrainian forces last year. Before the beginning of the Great War, this liner flew to Toronto several times a year, which attracted the attention of aviation enthusiasts, explained Ernest Gatschik, author of YouTube channel, where videos about planes that land and depart from Toronto Pirson Airport are published.
Gatychik-a fan of music in the Hevi-metal genre-said that when all four large aircraft engines are included, he "issues a unique scream". Currently, six Ruslans are flying in Western countries, one belongs to the Maximus Air Airlines with the UAE, and five more-Ukrainian Antonov Airlines. Dmitry Prodvirin, commercial director of Antonov Airlines, reported that Ukrainian planes were flying from the airport in Leipzig, where they were moved after the war began.
Two Russian An-124 was also parked there. Ukrainian AN-124 is used for the delivery of equipment, such as electric generators, such as Warsaw and other cities near the border of Ukraine. Last year, one of the Ukrainian "Ruslans" transported Turkish telecommunications satellites from Toulouse (France) to Cape Kanaveral (Florida), from where it was launched by SpaceX rocket Ilon Mask.
Dan Morgan-Evans, a representative of the London company Air Charter Service, noted that enterprises who want to use the services of these aircraft have to book them in a few weeks. "The planes are very, very busy," Morgan-Evans explained. David Hills, a former aviation mechanic, said that Canada had a ban on the use of aircraft belonging to Russia.
"It is a pity that it is idle, but at the same time it deprives the Russian system of strategic asset," - explained Hills, who works as a volunteer at the Canadian Museum of Military Aircraft in Hamilton. We will remind that on the planes "Ruslan" began to install engines of destroyed "Dream". The Deputy CEO of Antonov SE Maxim Sanotsky said that only the systems of preparation of air conditioning and the chassis rack remained from the Dream.