UK airline recovery dealt a blow as Russia imposes ban on its airspace

Russia has banned British Airways and other UK airlines from flying over or landing on its territory, in a move that disrupts flightpaths just as carriers had grown confident the worst of the pandemic was behind them. International Airlines Group, the owner of British Airways and Iberia, said on Friday that it expected to put two years and E10b of losses behind it and return to profitability this year. But as the airline’s management was briefing analysts on its upbeat forecasts, Moscow announced the ban in retaliation for a UK government decision earlier this week to stop Russia’s flagship carrier Aeroflot landing in Britain. As a result of the move by the Kremlin, British Airways suspended flights to Moscow and confirmed it would reroute to avoid Russian airspace, leading to longer flight times and higher fuel costs on flights heading to parts of Asia. Airlines flying from Europe to north East Asia typically use the curvature of the earth to take a route over Russia’s northern regions into countries such as China and Japan. Flight tracking data showed a BA flight between Delhi and London flew west in an hour long detour over the Caspian Sea to avoid Russia on Friday, while two Virgin Atlantic flights from Asia also skirted Russia. Sean Doyle, the CE of British Airways, said he only anticipated a “minimal impact on our flying programme” as the airline has not yet rebuilt its schedules to Asia that were disrupted by the pandemic. “We are able to reroute our network . . . and for the most part carry on as normal,” he said. But in the longer run, the Russian action threatens the profitability of key routes between Europe and Asia. Robert Boyle, a consultant and former head of strategy at IAG, calculated that avoiding Russian airspace on flights from Europe would add 20 per cent extra distance for north Asia destinations and around 10% for cities like Hong Kong. “As well as the additional time and cost involved, it would reduce the competitive advantage that European airlines have of offering direct flights from Asia to Europe, compared to transferring via Istanbul or the Gulf,” he said. Doyle said IAG’s plans for going back into north Asia were “very much on hold”, and highlighted plans to rebuild schedules around the profitable transatlantic routes, where IAG expects to operate 100 per cent of its pre-pandemic schedule by the third-quarter of this year. IAG on Friday announced a full-year operating loss after exceptional items of E2.8b, an improvement on a loss of E7.5b in 2020.<br/>