Russian plane stuck in Canada, parking fee up to nearly 330,000 USD

Aviation - Tourism Business

Tuesday, May 2, 2023 13:00 (GMT+7)
13:00 5/2/2023

A Russian Antonov An-124 cargo plane has been sitting idle at Toronto Pearson Airport for more than a year, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars in parking fees.

According to the Wall Street Journal , the Russian Antonov An-124 cargo plane has been stranded in Canada for over a year. In this unique situation, the parking fee for this plane has now reached $330,000 , and the number continues to increase over time.

This is a giant cargo plane and there are only 26 of them in the world . With a wingspan of up to 240 feet (more than 70m) - twice as large as the wings of a Boeing 737, the Antonov An-124 can carry up to 150 tons of cargo.

The Russian Antonov An-124 plane has been stranded at Toronto Pearson Airport since February 27, 2022. Photo: WSJ .

After Russia's military campaign in Ukraine began last year, Canada implemented a policy of banning its aircraft from entering Canadian airspace, leaving the Antonov An-124 stranded at Toronto Pearson Airport.

According to a spokesperson for Transport Canada, the country has no intention of lifting the ban at this time.

The giant cargo plane is currently parked on the east side of the airport, with parking fees totaling $330,000 . Last year, parking fees for the plane were 55 cents per minute, but this year, the figure has increased to 58 cents per minute.

Despite the huge fees, Toronto Pearson airport managers still want the plane to leave because it takes up all the parking space for other planes.

And of course, this is also the wish of Volga-Dnepr - the Russian airline that owns this plane. In fact, Volga-Dnepr's technical team is not even allowed to perform maintenance on the Antonov An-124. As a result, the plane just sits there, rusting over time due to the erosion of sun, rain, and snow.

In fact, the Antonov An-124 cargo aircraft were developed in Ukraine in the 1980s, before the collapse of the Soviet Union. By that time, about 55 had been completed. However, after the military campaign broke out, the An-124s owned by Ukraine were renamed.

There are currently six similar aircraft operating in Western countries, one owned by the UAE airline Maximus Air and the other five by Ukraine’s Antonov Airlines. Since the conflict, they have been transferred to Germany’s Leipzig airport.

According to Dan Morgan-Evans, director of Air Charter Service, the West's embargo on Russian aircraft has had a huge impact on the An-124. In addition to transporting large oil and gas equipment and satellites, Ukrainian An-124s are also used to transport equipment such as generators to Warsaw and other cities near the Ukrainian border.

Last year, one of these planes transported 66-ton Turkish telecommunications satellites from Tolouse, France, to Florida, USA, and delivered them to Elon Musk's SpaceX.

Mr Morgan-Evans said the An-124s were always fully booked and companies wanting to use them had to book them weeks in advance.

In 2023, the world economy is forecast to continue to fluctuate and cannot recover quickly. Many major economies still face risks such as slow GDP growth, inflation, unemployment, bad debt, etc. Zing readers are invited to read the 2023 Economic Bookshelf to grasp new economic knowledge and information in 2023.

Chang'e

Antonov An-124 aircraft parking fee