Cathay Pacific Resumes Using Russian Airspace

Many airlines stopped using Russian airspace after Russia invaded Ukrainian. Due to government bans, some airlines were forced to stop using Russian airspace, while other airlines stopped using Russian airspace.

The policy on using Russian airspace will be changed in the coming days according to Danny Lee.

Cathay Pacific no longer avoiding Russian airspace

Russian airspace will no longer be an issue on the routes between Hong Kong and eastern North America.

Looking at the New York to Hong Kong route over the past few months, instead of taking the polar route, the airline has flown over northern Canada, Alaska and the Pacific just south of Russia.

The flight time has been increased by one to three hours due to this. The flight has an actual flown distance of over 10,000 miles, even though the direct air distance is just over 8000 miles.

In the case of bad winds, a technical stop has to be made in Taipei in order to change crews.

These flights will fly over eastern Russia. This is necessary due to the issues with the plane. Russia has high ATC fees which make it hard for this to save money.

There is a notice to pilots that makes it clear that the flights are not dependent on any airports in Russia. If there was an emergency, these flights wouldn't divert to Russia.

A Cathay Pacific spokesman said this.

“There are other major airlines overflying Russian airspace and there are no sanctions which prevent Cathay Pacific overflying Russia. The Polar Route provides a safe, direct and the fastest flight experience to our customers traveling from the East Coast of North America to Hong Kong.”

Should Cathay Pacific avoid Russian airspace?

There are two elements to avoiding Russian airspace, safety and principle.

It's in terms of safety.

• Keep in mind many global airlines (Emirates, Qatar Airways, etc.) continue to use Russian airspace without issue, even on flights to the United States
• Politically, it wouldn’t really be in the Russian government’s interest to do anything to a Cathay Pacific plane
• Eastern Russia generally seems the lowest risk anyway, as it’s far from the conflict with Ukraine

Then there is the principle and the way in which it is done.

• The reality is that China/Hong Kong aren’t really taking much of a stand with this conflict
• While those in the US might not love the idea of flying over Russia and Cathay Pacific paying boatloads of money to use Russian airspace, that doesn’t really reflect the sentiment in China/Hong Kong, and for that matter travelers will probably appreciate the time savings
• Airlines that can use Russian airspace have a significant competitive advantage in terms of travel time, flight costs, etc.; it’s something Air India has been doing well with in recent months with service to the United States, given that US airlines have largely been forced to suspend India flights
• It’s pretty clear the current conflict isn’t going anywhere, and even if there were to be some sort of peace deal between Ukraine and Russia, I wouldn’t necessarily assume things would just go back to how they were before the conflict

Bottom line

On select flights to North America, Pacific will use Russian airspace. For the past several months the airline has been making huge detours to avoid Russian airspace, in many cases adding a couple of hours to the flight time.

Using eastern Russia airspace is one of the things that will be included on these flights.

What do you think is the case with Cathay Pacific?