SUVs, sports cars and big station wagons. Luxury vehicles with Russian license plates stand in the airport parking garages for millions of euros.
The most valuable vehicle in Finland is probably the Mercedes Benz GLE 63s AMG, which costs more than 300,000 euros new, and accelerates from 0 to 100 in less than four seconds.
You can also get a speedy ride with the Porsche Cayenne GTS, worth more than 200,000 euros, and the slightly more affordable BMW X7 M50d. There are also several Land Rovers and Lexuses in the price range of more than one hundred thousand euros.
Judging by the layer of dust, some of the cars have been in the Park for a long time.
Finland banned the entry of passenger cars registered in Russia on September 16, in accordance with the recommendation of the EU Commission. The goal of the decision is to prevent evasion of the sanctions so that Russians export goods to their home country through Finland.
The owners have half a year to take their cars out of the country.
Someone has also communicated the politicians’ wish to the owner of the Cadillac Escalade standing in the parking garage: “Go home” and “Slava Ukraini” are written in capital letters on its dirty rear window.
This story came about when a .fi reader asked the editors what happens if no one picks up the cars left in the Helsinki-Vantaa airport parking garage. You can send us story tips with this form.
The Audi driver does not know when he will be able to pick up his car
caught up with the new rough Audi A4 Allroad Quattro in the parking garage with parking Valery Klyukvinin. He answers his French phone number and says he is traveling in Europe. He implies that he is in the process of acquiring EU citizenship.
Kljukvin plans to pick up his car from Helsinki-Vantaa, but doesn’t know when yet.
Although he is now in EU countries, he regularly travels to Russia to visit his relatives. He regrets that in the future he will not be able to cross the border with his own car.
– It is sad that ordinary citizens suffer so much from the conflicts between the EU and Russia.
Kljukvin believes that the car import ban will not completely stop the cross-border traffic of passenger cars.
– You can always buy a car with an EU license plate.
Abandoned cars become property of the city of Vantaa
Storing a car in Helsinki-Vantaa is not exactly cheap. Parking in the P1 hall, which is located closest to the terminal, costs as much as 186 euros per week, and 136 euros in the P2 hall as well.
There are only fifty Russian cars in the parking areas in question.
The majority of cars with Russian license plates are in P3 or P5 halls, where parking costs 79 euros per week and 88 euros in P5.
counted the cars a week ago. There were 78 of them in total.
Just over a year ago, around 1,400 Russian-owned cars were parked at the airport, reported Helsingin Sanomat then. According to the magazine, the owners of several luxury cars were traveling in different parts of Europe at the time of parking.
Now they are only 5 percent from a year ago. Also Evening newspaper recently said that the number of Russian cars on the field has decreased radically.
Many of the remaining cars have a layer of dust on their surface estimated to be weeks old. A few seem to have been standing for months.
Airport company Finavia does not comment on how long individual customers’ cars are parked in the hall. According to the company, there is no time limit for parking.
– If you only drive the car to the boom and the hall, you can drive it out at any time. Payment is made upon departure. We have cars parked for weeks or months. We don’t know how long each parker is going to be on the trip, says the manager responsible for the parking garages Jukka Isomäki From Finavia.
If the car appears to be abandoned, and Finavia cannot contact its owner, the parking enforcement of the city of Vantaa will take the car away. If the car is not claimed within the deadline, its ownership is transferred to the city.
This has happened before. Evening newspaper told about a 700-series BMW recently abandoned at the airport and auctioned off by the city when the owner didn’t pick it up.
According to Finavia’s Jukka Isomäki, cars are rarely abandoned at the airport.
However, if the owners of cars with Russian license plates do not arrive to pick up their vehicles for one reason or another, the city of Vantaa can claim the million-dollar property for itself.
You can discuss the topic on 30.9. until 11 p.m.