The EU is planning to close all airspace to Russian airlines in the latest round of sanctions against Russia following the invasion of Ukraine last week.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen announced the move to ban Russian aircraft from EU airspace during a statement on Sunday (27 February).
Von der Leyen said: “We are shutting down the EU airspace for Russians. We are proposing a prohibition on all Russian-owned, Russian registered or Russian-controlled aircraft.
“These aircraft will no more be able to land in, take off or overfly the territory of the EU.
“This will apply to any plane owned, chartered or otherwise controlled by a Russian legal or natural person.
“Our airspace will be closed to every Russian plane – and that includes the private jets of oligarchs.”
Several EU nations had already banned Russian airlines from flying to its airports or using its airspace before von der Leyen’s announcement.
The UK government announced a ban on Russian carrier Aeroflot on Thursday (24 February), which was swiftly followed the next day by Russia stopping all UK airlines from flying to its airports and through Russian airspace. Russia's aviation authority has now banned airlines from 36 countries, including all 27 EU states, from using its airspace.
Avoiding Russian airspace means European airlines having to re-route some flights to Asia, particularly to destinations such as China, Japan and South Korea.
Air France has already suspended flights to and from Russia, as well as overflights of Russia’s airspace “until further notice”. This also includes the temporary suspension of flights to China, Japan and South Korea while the airline “studies flight plan options to avoid Russian airspace”.
While Finnair said it was suspending flights in Russian airspace for one week while it waits for “possible upcoming regulatory changes”.
“We will cancel our flights to Seoul, Osaka, Tokyo and Shanghai in Asia and to Moscow and St Petersburg in Russia on 27 February-6 March 2022,” said Finnair in a statement.
“We continue flying from Helsinki to Bangkok, Phuket, Singapore and Delhi and from Stockholm Arlanda to Bangkok and Phuket. We will avoid using the Russian airspace which lengthens the travel time by approximately one hour.”
Lufthansa and KLM also said on Saturday (26 February) that they would not use Russian airspace for the next seven days, while their flights to Russia were also suspended.