It’s like an invisible wall erected between Russia and the Atlantic Ocean. On Sunday February 27, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the closure of all European Union airspace to all Russian aircraft, including “the private jets of the oligarchs”.
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At the end of the week, many European countries announced this sanction, in retaliation for Thursday’s invasion of Ukraine by Russia. Thus, as of Sunday evening, theFrance closes its airspace to Russian planes and airlines, announced on Twitter the Minister Delegate for Transport, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, in the middle of the day.
Alongside Italy and Denmark, France demanded “rapid European coordination on the subject”, to which Ursula von der Leyen responded. Moscow did not fail to respond, in turn upsetting the habits of dozens of airlines.
Which countries have closed their airspace to Russian airlines?
“In Europe, the sky is open (…) to those who connect people, not to those who commit brutal aggression”Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said on Twitter. After having announced this measure piecemeal, the countries of the European Union have united to prohibit generally to Russian aircraft to fly over their territory.
The transport of passengers and goods, military aircraft and private jets are affected by these bans. Russian flights to these countries are therefore canceled and those heading west will have to make long detours to circumvent this vast forbidden zone. Most of the countries just announced the flight ban. Only Germany announced a three-month ban from Sunday.
Shortly before the French announcement, Sunday on Franceinfo, government spokesman Gabriel Attal said: we must “to ensure, for example, that the French in Russia can return to France”.
In total, on Sunday evening, 31 countries on the European continent closed, or will close, their airspace to Russian companies. Among them, the United Kingdom, Iceland, Moldova and Norway, supplemented by countries of the European Union. The Minister Delegate for Transport, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, announced Sunday noon that “in the face of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the unity of Europe [était] total”.
Prior to Ursula von der Leyen’s announcements, 18 of the 27 EU countries had already taken the same decision: Germany, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Spain, Estonia , Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, Slovenia and Sweden. The nine remaining countries of the European Union reinforced this list on Sunday evening: Cyprus, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia.
The neighboring countries of Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova, have closed their airspace, not only to Russia, but to all other countries. Outside the European continent, only Canada, the second largest country on the planet, had also announced that it had made this decision at the end of the day on Sunday..
On the European continent, the following countries still accept Russian planes: Switzerland and the Balkan countries – Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia.
How did Russia respond?
In retaliation, Moscow has begun to prohibit the overflight, including transit, of its territory, to planes linked to European countries which have announced such decisions in recent days. On Sunday, this concerns eight European countries: the United Kingdom, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Poland and the Czech Republic.
Russian airlines have declared canceling their flights to many of their European destinations, until March 13 for S7 Airlines or until March 28 for connections to Prague and Warsaw, reports the BBC.
Concretely, what does it change?
The geographical position of certain sanctioning countries risks putting Russia in great difficulty. Finland, for example, deprives Russia of more than 1,300 km of border in northern Europe. the Gulf of Finland, up to 120 km wide and surrounded by Finland, Russia and Estonia, could become the only viable passage for Russian planes to the west, point the BBC.
The closure of Finnish airspace also risks affecting service to the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, on the shores of the Baltic Sea, between Poland and Lithuania. The Russian civil aviation agency, Rosaviatsia, assures that flights of Russian companies will continue to be carried out to the enclave of Kaliningrad, passing over international waters in the Baltic Sea and bypassing Lithuania.
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Air traffic in Europe will slow down and hundreds of planes will have to make considerable detours. The totality of European flights were already avoiding the territory at war, Ukraine, as shown in thee live air traffic monitoring site Flightradar24.
Following in the footsteps of the groups Lufthansa (Condor, Swiss, Brussels Airlines) and IAG (British Airways), Air France has decided to suspend service and overflights of Russia until further notice, “given the situation in the region”a spokesperson told AFP on Sunday. The French airline is also suspending flights to and from China, Korea and Japan, “time to study flight plan options to avoid Russian airspace”.
The disturbances began on Sunday. Several flights to Vienna or Frankfurt, from Russian lines Aeroflot, Ural Airlines and Rossiya, had to return to Russia, reported the site Flightradar24.
Because of new restriction, several flights performed by Russian airlines are returning to Russia.
Aeroflot #SU2300 https://t.co/NWyqTUIbCi
Ural Airlines #U61897 https://t.co/8qkgIVlVks
Rossiya #SU6603 https://t.co/Pp9jba8CQT pic.twitter.com/plsQim4gBL
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) February 27, 2022
The routes will have to be adapted and the times of certain flights will be longer. On Sunday, a flight from Moscow to Budapest, Hungary, had to be extended by 70 minutes to bypass Poland, via the Baltic Sea to the north and then Germany to the west, reports Flightradar24.
Even the Russian government will have to modify its itinerary on Monday. “Kremlin Security Council Secretary will arrive in Belgrade tomorrow for talks with Serbian President Vučić. With countries closing their airspace to Russia, Patrushev’s plane will have to find an alternative route to Russia-friendly Serbia “noted a researcher from the Balkan Forum on Twitter.
This scenario is already noticeable in the opposite direction. In order not to fly over Russia, the British company Virgin Atlantic has announced that it will add 15 minutes to an hour to its flights between the United Kingdom, India and Pakistan, indicates the BBC.