Founder of Russia's largest cargo airline escalates fight with Ottawa over sanctions as jet racks up fees at Pearson - National Post

The hulking frame of the four-engined Antonov An-124, a Russian strategic airlift cargo jet with a NATO codename of Condor and the white-blue-and-red flag of Russia on its tail fin, parked at the Toronto airport is the most public sign of the continuing rift between Canada and Russia. Photo by Jack Boland /Jack Boland/Toronto SunArticle contentThe founder of Russia’s largest private cargo airline group stepped up his battle with Ottawa over Canada’s sanctions against him in retaliation for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Aleksey Isaykin lost his court challenge seeking his removal from Canada’s sanctions list targeting Russia in August but on Tuesday he filed a notice of appeal in the Federal Court of Appeal in Ottawa.

Appealing sanctions alongside Isaykin is the airline he founded, which owns a massive cargo jet — the world’s largest — that remains stranded at Toronto’s Pearson airport since landing shortly before Canada closed its skies to Russian aircraft in 2022 after Russia’s attack on Ukraine.

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Isaykin and Volga-Dnepr Airlines were both put on Canada’s sanctions list in 2023 under regulations allowing Ottawa to list a person or corporation on reasonable grounds to believe they have directly or indirectly helped or supported Russia’s “violation or attempted violation of the sovereignty or territorial integrity of Ukraine.”

The hulking frame of the four-engined Antonov An-124, a Russian strategic airlift cargo jet with a NATO codename of Condor and the white-blue-and-red flag of Russia on its tail fin, parked at the Toronto airport is the most public sign of the continuing rift.

The plane remains on an out-of-the-way apron at the edge of the airport, accumulating sky-high parking fees. Based on the plane’s long wingspan, the 1,678 days it has been there, and the average of fluctuating per-minute fees for inactive apron space between 2022 and 2026, the parking fees could exceed $4 million.

Ottawa announced plans to seize the plane for “complicity in President Putin’s war of choice” and give it to Ukraine to help compensate for war damage back in 2023, but the process has been bogged down in court.