The conflict in Ukraine has forced many airlines to return to the ways of the Cold War

Days after the start of the Russian military operation in Ukraine, The European Union closed its airspace to all Russian aircraft. The United States and Canada were quick to join the move, and Russia reciprocated.And prevented aircraft from 37 countries from entering their airspace.

The closure of Russian airspace has forced international airlines to rethink their routes and lengthen some routes, increasing flight times, fuel consumption and ticket prices. Many companies were forced to return to the roads of the Cold War times, traveling thousands of kilometers more than before.

Thus, Finnair’s flight from Helsinki to Tokyo now takes 13 hours instead of 9.5 or 10 hours, and although the Finnish airline managed to restore this route, it had to cancel flights between the country’s capital and the cities of Osaka and Hong Kong. Until the end of April. It has also managed to maintain some other flights to Asia and continues to fly to Bangkok, the Thai island of Phuket, Singapore and New Delhi, albeit with longer flight times.

High costs for fuel, crew and navigation

“A longer flight time has a significant impact on flight finances with increased fuel costs, crew costs and navigation costs,” Berto Gullma, who heads up transportation planning at Finnair, explained in early March.

And he added: “The impact of this is so great, that at this time unfortunately we cannot provide passenger flights to all our Asian destinations,” noting that for travel to Japan, for example, they bypass Russia in the south or in the north, depending on the country.

United Airlines has rescheduled its route from New Delhi to Chicago via Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Turkey, bringing the flight time to 17 hours.two hours more than when the US airline passed through Russia, according to data from FlightAware.

Japan Airlines takes about 15 hours to cover the route between Tokyo and London via Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Iceland instead of about 12 hours through Russian airspace.

While, One of the world’s longest flights, from Sydney to London via Qantas Airways’ Darwin, must now pass through the Middle East and Southern Europe instead of China and RussiaAdding an extra hour to the 17-hour flight, the Australian airline warned in late February.

Total, At least 21 airlines have modified their routes to avoid Russian airspace, either because of the outright ban or because they want to avoid potential problemsaccording to data from Flight Radar 24.

The roads that were hardest hit were those connecting Europe with Asia, and flights can now take up to three hours longer.

The Russian Ministry of Transport estimates that foreign airlines spend an additional $37.5 million each week by forcing them to choose alternative routes.

Of course, we had no interest in imposing restrictions on foreign airlines. On Saturday, Russian Transport Minister Vitaly Savelyev said that the decisions of the aviation authorities of many foreign countries left us no choice, so in accordance with all international norms, we took countermeasures.

(taken from RT)