Volga-Dnepr Group founder warns the company may be nationalized

:: Volga-Dnepr

The Russian government is looking to nationalize the once largest of the country’s cargo carriers, Volga-Dnepr Group, its founder Alexey Isaykin told employees at the company’s 35th anniversary gathering. He explained, that the company’s cargo carrying capacities are of interest due to “the context of today’s reality”.

“If the motherland says that the company has to serve the motherland – that’s it then. Nationalization, confiscation, a fair deal, any form,” Isaykin said.

According to sources quoted by Kommersant Daily, all of the company’s assets, including maintenance bases, may be ceded to new owners within the next few months.

In 2022 Volga-Dnepr was the largest commercial operator of Antonov An-124-100 ultra-heavy transport airplanes, with nine of these in its fleet. As of today, according to Russia’s aviation authority Rosaviatsiya, it operates three An-124s and five Ilyushin IL-76s. These aircraft may be transferred to the Ministry of Defense, since one of its squads operates same types of aircraft.

Before the international sanctions imposed on Russia in 2022 Volga-Dnepr was the country’s largest freight carrier. In 2021 it transported 724,578 tons of cargo, accounting for 49 per cent of the country’s entire cargo volumes. The group’s largest airline – AirBridgeCargo, which operated 17 Boeing 747s and one Boeing 777, stopped flying in 2022. Another subsidiary, Atran, changed its fleet of Boeing 737 freighters for two vintage Antonov An-12 turboprops.

Isaykin founded Volga-Dnepr in 1990, but in 2022 he ceased his ownership, after the Great Britain imposed personal sanctions on him. However, the measure did not prove helpful in avoiding US and EU sanctions for the airline he founded, which were attributed to transporting military and other cargo in the interests of the Russian government.