How Russian airspace restrictions are adding hours to some Europe-Asia flights

Recently introduced airspace restrictions are adding up to seven hours to round-trip flight times between Europe and Asia, according to analysis of Flightradar24 data by Eurocontrol. The changes reflect new flight patterns introduced after the closure of Russian and Belarusian airspace to many airlines in Europe, alongside decisions by some countries to avoid those airspaces voluntarily in response to security concerns amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It remains to be seen how long the restrictions will last, but SAS CE Anko van der Werff recently suggested that “overflying Russia is not going to be [resolved in] a matter of months – I really feel it’s going to be longer”. Finnair’s home city of Helsinki is most affected among the four airports considered by Eurocontrol, reflecting an impact that tends to lessen the further south and away from Russia a European airline is based. Services to and from northeast Asia are, however, significantly affected across the board. Indeed, the most extreme example considered in the Eurocontrol analysis is the Helsinki-Seoul route, which now takes around 12 hours, versus 8.5 hours before, in a journey distance that has risen from around 7,500km to 11,500km. Finnair’s strategy for maintaining its Asian network since the restrictions were introduced includes resorting to polar routes to reach destinations previously accessible via Russian airspace, such as Seoul and Tokyo Narita. Already-lengthy flights from Helsinki to Singapore are some 1.25 hours longer, reflecting an extra 1,400km on the sector length.<br/>