Airlines say Chinese have ‘unfair advantage’ flying over Russia
European airlines have warned they will struggle to compete with Chinese rivals as travel rebounds after Covid-19 lockdowns because they are forced to take longer routes to Asia to avoid flying over Russia. Ben Smith, CE of Air France-KLM, said Chinese airlines had an “unfair advantage” over European carriers that have been banned from Russian airspace since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine almost a year ago. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine redrew some of the world’s main flight paths, cutting European airlines off from Russian airspace when flying the “great circle route” over northern Russia. But Chinese carriers can still fly over Russia and take shorter routes to Europe. “Between Paris and Seoul, it can add up to three hours in flight time,” Smith told the Financial Times. “If you’ve got a Chinese carrier that is flying over Russia, they’ve got an unfair advantage over us.” Finnair CE Topi Manner this week also warned that European airlines were at a “significant” disadvantage. “We think that what this will mean is that it will be very hard to make secondary cities of China profitable in terms of flying,” he said. Finland’s flag carrier built its business by using its location in the north of Europe to offer quick flight paths to Asia through northern Russia, and was badly hit by the sudden closure of the country’s airspace last year. “It adds hours to the journey and thus fuel, costs and emissions,” said Andrew Charlton, an aviation consultant. Finnair flights between Helsinki and Tokyo now take over 13 hours, up from 9 hours 30 before the airspace closures. Charlton said the rerouted flights would also add to congestion in the skies over Europe, leading to likely air traffic control delays. The warnings came as a wider rebound in air travel is already bringing traffic close to pre-pandemic levels in regions such as Europe, fuelling a recovery for the industry. In particular, airlines are hoping to capitalise on an expected return of Chinese tourists to popular shopping destinations such as Paris.<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2023-02-20/unaligned/airlines-say-chinese-have-2018unfair-advantage2019-flying-over-russia
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Airlines say Chinese have ‘unfair advantage’ flying over Russia
European airlines have warned they will struggle to compete with Chinese rivals as travel rebounds after Covid-19 lockdowns because they are forced to take longer routes to Asia to avoid flying over Russia. Ben Smith, CE of Air France-KLM, said Chinese airlines had an “unfair advantage” over European carriers that have been banned from Russian airspace since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine almost a year ago. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine redrew some of the world’s main flight paths, cutting European airlines off from Russian airspace when flying the “great circle route” over northern Russia. But Chinese carriers can still fly over Russia and take shorter routes to Europe. “Between Paris and Seoul, it can add up to three hours in flight time,” Smith told the Financial Times. “If you’ve got a Chinese carrier that is flying over Russia, they’ve got an unfair advantage over us.” Finnair CE Topi Manner this week also warned that European airlines were at a “significant” disadvantage. “We think that what this will mean is that it will be very hard to make secondary cities of China profitable in terms of flying,” he said. Finland’s flag carrier built its business by using its location in the north of Europe to offer quick flight paths to Asia through northern Russia, and was badly hit by the sudden closure of the country’s airspace last year. “It adds hours to the journey and thus fuel, costs and emissions,” said Andrew Charlton, an aviation consultant. Finnair flights between Helsinki and Tokyo now take over 13 hours, up from 9 hours 30 before the airspace closures. Charlton said the rerouted flights would also add to congestion in the skies over Europe, leading to likely air traffic control delays. The warnings came as a wider rebound in air travel is already bringing traffic close to pre-pandemic levels in regions such as Europe, fuelling a recovery for the industry. In particular, airlines are hoping to capitalise on an expected return of Chinese tourists to popular shopping destinations such as Paris.<br/>
