How Airlines Are Avoiding Russian Airspace?

All Nippon Airlines and Japan Airlines have decided to either cancel or change their flights to and from Europe to avoid flying over Russian airspace. All European flights were canceled on Thursday.

JAL and ANA have canceled or diverted European flights on Friday due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. ANA canceled some flights on Saturday. Japan Airlines plans to operate one of its London flights on Friday using an eastward route over Alaska, Greenland, and Iceland instead of the usual west coast route over Russian airspace.

"We are continuously monitoring the situation, but given the present situation in Ukraine and the different risks, we have decided to cancel flights."

JAL spokesperson told Reuters

Russian airspace is used by ANA and JAL to operate around 60 flights per week.

The flight from Tokyo to London took a different route today, going East over Alaska, Greenland and Iceland instead of going West over Russia.

Longer Diversions to avoid Russian Airspace

After Russia closed its airspace to airlines from 36 countries, airlines are forced to cancel or change flights between Europe and North Asia. The flight time to Southeast Asia, including India and Pakistan, has been extended because commercial airlines avoid flying around Ukraine.

Finnair decided to suspend flights to seven cities because they were dependent on Russian airspace. The flag carrier said that it would resume four weekly flights between the two cities. Finnair's A350-900s will take 13 hours to fly to Tokyo, up from ten hours previously.

"Japan is one of our most important markets, and we want to continue offering safe and reliable connections between Helsinki and Tokyo also in this situation. Japan is also an important cargo market, and air connections are needed to keep cargo moving."

Ole Orvér, Chief Commercial Officer, Finnair

Finnair's flight between Sweden and Thailand has been changed to fly towards Saudi Arabia rather than over Russia.

Korean Air is in Russian airspace. Taiwanese carriers are avoiding flying over Russian airspace and are flying over China and central Asia.

Rerouted Flights

Adding up flight operation costs and reducing cargo capacity in some of the flights have been done by airlines.

The flight was diverted south of Russian airspace, adding 700 nautical miles and prolonging the flight time by almost two hours. Due to high operating costs and a decrease in cargo volume, the cargo division of Lufthansa has canceled flights to Hong Kong and Beijing until the end of March.

British Airways is also affected by the closing of Russian airspace. The flight from London to New Delhi has been changed to fly over the Black Sea instead of over Russia.

All flights between the US and India have been canceled by United. Russian Airspace took 15 hours 46 minutes to reach Newark after the last flight left Delhi.

The cover photo is from FlightRadar 24.