United joins US peers in avoiding Russian airspace

United will stop flying over Russia for its daily flights to India, becoming the last major US passenger carrier to withdraw from the airspace following the invasion of Ukraine. The airline expects short-term disruptions as it reroutes flights to Mumbai and New Delhi from its hubs in Chicago, Newark and San Francisco, spokeswoman Leslie Scott said Tuesday. United hasn’t decided whether any of the four flights will need to be suspended because of the operational challenges, she said. Because of range limits for flights returning to the U.S., the two Indian cities were the last destinations for which United was using Russian airspace, the airline said. United had routed other flights around Russia since the Feb. 24 invasion. Scott declined to discuss the rationale for the changes. The US FAA barred US airlines from flying over Belarus, Ukraine and part of western Russia on Feb. 24, but hasn’t issued further restrictions. <br/>