Russia ban on UK flights sends British Airways off course

[LONDON] Russia banned British airlines from flying to or over its territory, a move meant to punish the UK for imposing sanctions on Aeroflot over the attack on Ukraine.

The decree issued by Russia's aviation watchdog on Friday (Feb 25) includes overflights, meaning British Airways (BA) flights will have to avoid the country's airspace on their way to Asia, adding time and fuel expense.

BA cancelled its sole service between London Heathrow and Moscow Domodedevo airports on Friday, and said it was avoiding Russian airspace.

For now, there will be limited pain for BA, because Covid-19 restrictions in Asia mean there are few long-distance flights coming in. But Singapore and Japan are starting to ease those barriers, even if China and Hong Kong remain essentially closed.

"The impact for us is not huge because right now we are only flying to a small number of destinations in Asia and we can reroute our flights," Luis Gallego, BA parent IAG SA's chief executive officer, said on an earnings call.

Go-Around A flight from New Delhi to London on Friday took almost an hour longer than the typical 9 hours, skirting Russian airspace to take a more southerly route through the Black Sea and then on through Romania.

Normally, the path would have been more direct, crossing Russia below Moscow, through the Baltic states and on to the UK

British Airways has flights scheduled between the UK and Singapore, Bangkok, and Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan over the next two days that would normally go over Russia.

The escalation came as Russia's invasion of Ukraine entered its second day, with intense fighting north of Kyiv. The US and European Union have stepped up economic penalties, but haven't gone as far as the UK with the flight ban.

Russian airspace forms a key part of the route that airlines take for services between North Asia and Europe, suggesting a wider potential impact affecting carriers such as Air France-KLM and Deutsche Lufthansa if the EU follows the UK's lead.

The idea hasn't come yet up in official discussions and there are no current plans to ban Russian airlines, but nothing is completely off the table, an EU diplomat said, asking not to be named on confidential deliberations.

On Friday, Lufthansa services from Qingdao, China, and Seoul to Frankfurt were overflying Russia, while Air France, KLM and Finnair also had aircraft using Russian airspace.

Air France is maintaining flights to Moscow and St Petersburg, and flying over Russia to reach other destinations, a spokesman said. BLOOMBERG