Dozens of airlines avoiding Russian airspace adding up to four hours to flights
By Geoffrey Thomas Sun Mar 13, 2022
According to Flightradar24 at least 21 airlines have re-routed flights around Russian airspace adding hours to some flights.
Routes between Europe and Asia have been most affected says Flightradar 24 as airlines have either re-routed around Russian airspace adding time and distance to their flights or canceling flights.
It says that “most airlines with flights between Europe and Asia have shifted their flights south to avoid Russian airspace. Instead of heading east through Russia and then south to destinations in Japan, South Korea, China, and elsewhere in Southeast Asia, flights now first travel south to cross via Turkey, Central Asia, China, and Mongolia.”
Traveling eastbound, this new route adds approximately one hour of flying time. On the return trip, flights can now take up to three hours longer Flightradar 24 says.
READ: Ocean Infinity commits to a new search for MH370 in 2023.
READ: Hundreds of thousands watching spy planes and drones near Ukraine.
For instance, Japan Airlines’ flight 43 (below) between Tokyo and London averaged 12 hours 12 minutes when traveling over Russia. Flightradar 24 says for the new route over Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and Iceland the flight time now averages 14 hours 38 minutes.
Finnair also has a similar problem, Its Helsinki to Tokyo flight (below) used to take 8 hours 57 minutes from Europe to Japan but now it takes another four hours.
About AirlineRatings.com
Airlineratings.com was developed to provide everyone in the world a one-stop shop for everything related to airlines, formed by a team of aviation editors, who have forensically researched nearly every airline in the world.
Our rating system is rated from one to seven stars on safety – with seven being the highest ranking. Within each airline, you will find the country of origin, airline code, booking URL, and seat map information. The rating system takes into account a number of different factors related to audits from aviation’s governing bodies, lead associations, as well as the airlines, own safety data. Every airline has a safety rating breakdown so you can see exactly how they rate.
Over 230 of the airlines on the site that carry 99 percent of the world’s passengers have a product rating. Given that low cost, regional and full-service carriers are so different we have constructed a different rating system for each which can be found within each airline.
Finnair also has a similar problem, Its Helsinki to Tokyo flight (below) used to take 8 hours 57 minutes from Europe to Japan but now it takes another four hours.
Have questions or want to share your thoughts?
