Since Sunday, the European Union airspace has been closed to “any plane owned, chartered or otherwise controlled by a Russian legal or natural person” and, as of yesterday, the USA has applied the same measures, in an attempt to determine President Putin to stop the war he has started in Ukraine. In return, Russia has also closed its airspace for all the states that prohibited their aircraft.
When the bans first started being implemented, some flights had to turn around mid-route to avoid entering restricted airspace, while now they must take alternative routes, not only causing longer flight times, but also increased operating costs.
One of the first airlines to be impacted by the sanctions was Russian flag carrier Aeroflot. Departing from Belgrade, on Sunday, instead of the usual route over Eastern Europe, the flight had to go around the south of the continent, over Turkey, to finally enter Russian airspace and land in Moscow. The usual flight time for this route is 2h35min and the detour prolonged it by over 3h, to 5h45min.
However, Russian airlines are not the only ones affected by the restrictions. Flights from Australia to London now fly over the Middle East and Southern Europe instead of Russia, while the British Airways flight from New Delhi to London has become approximatively 45min longer.
Robert Mann, a New York-based aviation consultant, has estimated, in an interview for ABC News, that the detours could bring airlines an extra cost of $4,000 to $12,000 per hour. These costs come from fuel, labour and maintenance and they could lead to increased rates for passengers and cargo shipping.
Some routings will simply become uneconomic or impractical.
Robert Mann, aviation consultant
To compensate for the extra time, German carrier Lufthansa, reported by the Wall Street Journal, said they have to carry 20% less freight on their cargo flights. However, other airlines have chosen to simply stop servicing some of their flights altogether, instead of re-routing. Virgin Atlantic Airways discontinued the London-Shanghai cargo route, Finnair suspended flights to Japan, China and South Korea, while Singapore Airlines stopped flights to Moscow.
Another problem arising from the sanctions is the repossession of leased planes. Aircraft lessors were asked by the EU to break their contracts with Russia, so the leased planes need to be brought back to their owners. A task which could prove to be quite difficult.
It’s possible the government could choose to challenge the lessors’ abilities to repossess these planes, claiming Aeroflot is not doing any harm by operating the aircraft domestically.
Henry Harteveldt, analyst and president of Atmosphere Research Group, for Insider
The Russian government could confront this decision and even introduce different obstacles to prevent the aircraft from leaving the country. Additionally, Henry Harteveldt, analyst and president of Atmosphere Research Group, told Insider there are numerous logistical aspects that could make the process more difficult: “Who is going to fly these airplanes from Russia? How do the airlines get their Russian pilots back home again? All the logistics have to be figured out.”
