Formerly profitable British all-cargo specialist CargoLogicAir (P3, London Stansted) (CLA) has been placed into administration after its business was affected by the sanctions against Russia over the invasion of Ukraine.

The company has been unable to trade effectively since its majority shareholder and former director, dual Russian and Cypriot national Alexey Isaykin, was made the subject of UK government sanctions against businesses deemed Russian-controlled, liquidators David Buchler and Jo Milner of Buchler Phillips Limited said in a statement.

"As a consequence, the company sought and was granted licences for a minimal continuance of operations from HM Treasury. However, it ran into problems operating its bank accounts on a timely basis: the company faced increasing difficulties with its bankers despite having considerable funds in its account, which should have left the company solvent," they explained.

"The appointment of administrators at CargoLogicAir is a very unfortunate, unintended consequence of sanctions generally applied against British businesses perceived as Russian controlled. This is a unique British business performing a valuable commercial service to British customers trading overseas, employing British people and paying British tax," commented David Buchler of Buchler Phillips.

Established in 2015, CLA is the only British all-cargo main deck freight airline headquartered at London Heathrow. The company employed more than 100 people before the sanctions and made a profit of GBP41 million pounds (USD49 million) on a turnover of GBP149 million (USD177 million) in 2020.

According to the ch-aviation fleets module, the airline currently has one B747-400ERF, G-CLBA (msn 32870), which operated scheduled and chartered freight services on routes between the UK, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. At its height, it used three freighters, including a B747-400FSCD and a B747-8F, according to ch-aviation fleets history data.

CargoLogicAir UK is a subsidiary of CargoLogic Holdings (UK). The group's other subsidiary, CargoLogic Germany (GCL, Leipzig/Halle), is also in insolvency proceedings.

According to a spokesman for Buchler Phillips Limited, neither of these is corporately related to Russia's Volga-Dnepr Group except for having a shareholder in common.

In August, Isaikin withdrew from all of the group's structures and ceded control to the rest of the company's management team to avoid sanctions.