British Airways avoids Russian airspace. As part of the sanctions, the flight to Moscow was canceled

As part of the package of sanctions against Russia announced by the British government the day before its invasion of Ukraine, all regular Russian airlines, including the national airline Aeroflot, were banned from entering British airspace.

IAG President Luis Gallego said: “Due to the British government’s decision to prevent the landing of Aeroflot in Great Britain, we have taken a decision not to use Russian airspace for flights. At the moment, we are avoiding Russian airspace” – said IAG President Luis Gallego.

Airlines pay a fee for flights across the area of ​​a particular country. In this regard, Russia has a special position on the map, since most air carriers on routes to and from Southeast Asia use the airspace over Siberia.

The proceeds of the Siberian transit finance the Russian national airline Aeroflot and enable the line to develop rapidly – said Dominik Sipiński, aviation analyst at ch-aviation.com and Polityka Insight, in an interview with money.pl. The Polish Air Navigation Services Agency also indicated that the resignation of the so-called polar routes, means having to travel to Southeast Asia via Bulgaria, Turkey, Iran or Iraq. This in turn means longer flight times and higher costs.

In a statement, IAG noted the matter. – atThe tides for us are not huge because at the moment we only fly to a small number of destinations in Asia and we can redirect our flights. Chief Gallego added.