Russia decided to shut the international flights from its airspace may cause significant impact on the country’s finances.

After the invasion of Ukraine, Russian airlines are facing an almost complete blockade from flying west over Europe after they were barred from the airspace of nearly 30 countries.

John Strickland the aviation consultant of JLS Consulting said that, “The immediate impact is on flights between Russia and other countries around Europe, the bigger issue is whether Russian airspace is closed off. This would have an impact on other countries’ airlines, from the UK and EU states, who would ordinarily use Russian airspace to fly to many destinations in Asia. That means more indirect routings and flying for significantly longer. We don’t know how long this might last for. Airline management teams will be racking their brains right now and thinking about contingency plans.”

Ursula von der Leyen

Airline management teams will be racking their brains right now and thinking about contingency plans.”

In retaliation over Boris Johnson’s decision of ban Aeroflot From Landing in the UK, Russia has also  banned all the British aircraft from landing in the country too.

It is been said that if Russia will decide to shut out international flights from its airspace, this decision may cause a significant impact on the country’s finances. On this Strickland further said “Russia makes a lot of foreign exchange for charging for overflight rights, the use of airspace and navigation, and it is a substantial amount”.

From the flight tracker website Flight FlightRadar24 is is been saying that the Airbus A321 jet flew from north-west across Russia to the Baltic Sea, which it crossed to reach Germany’s northern coast, before travelling across Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France and finally Spain.

Further the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen also said that, “bloc would close its airspace to Russian aircraft. Hours earlier, Germany, Italy, France, Portugal, Spain, Norway and Finland had joined the long list of states across the continent that have imposed national bans on Russian aircraft flying overhead. The UK, Ireland, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia, the Czech Republic and the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia had already taken the step to close their airspace to Russian planes, severely limiting Russia’s options for flying west”.

FlightRadar24 showed that an Aeroflot flight travelling on Sunday from Moscow to Athens took a similar route before dipping south, skirting the coast of Italy. before finally reaching the Greek capital. A more much direct journey would have taken an aircraft over Ukraine and the Black Sea.

FlightRadar24

Hours earlier, Germany, Italy, France, Portugal, Spain, Norway and Finland had joined the long list of states across the continent that have imposed national bans on Russian aircraft flying overhead.

According to the information, Lithuanian airspace usually provides Russia with the shortest flight to its Kaliningrad exclave- a small parcel of land next to the Baltic Sea between Lithuania and Poland -which has no common border with Russia.

The route of flight SU2500, operated by the Russian national airline, Aeroflot, from Moscow to Madrid on Sunday morning illustrated the changes to flight routing already necessary before Sunday’s wave of bans were announced.

The flight tracker website FlightRadar24 showed the Airbus A321 jet flew north-west across Russia to the Baltic Sea, which it crossed to reach Germany’s northern coast, before travelling across Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France and finally Spain.

The airspace closures are redrawing the route map for Russian jets, resulting in longer journeys, which use significantly more fuel and cost more for the airlines to operate, at a time when Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine has pushed oil prices higher. The situation will become far more challenging for Russia now that the EU has closed its airspace, almost completely blocking most flightpaths to the west.

The German flag carrier, Lufthansa, had already cancelled all of its flights to Russia for the coming week.

The measures come just as international air travel is beginning to return following the pandemic, although there are fewer passenger flights between Europe and Asia, as many countries, such as China and Japan, remain mostly closed to foreign visitors. However, the route changes are also expected to affect the transport of cargo.

Aeroflot

The flight tracker website FlightRadar24 showed the Airbus A321 jet flew north-west across Russia to the Baltic Sea.