Following a recent wave of sanctions by Europe and the US, Moscow is musing over threats to close the Russian airspace. Virgin atlantics boss Richard Branson, says this will end up being detrimental to the Russian aviation more than other long-haul carriers such as his and British airways.
Although it would result in incurring more costs to go around Russia, it is certainly safer to use a lot more money to fly around Russia than to be brought down by enemy fire in disputed areas of Eastern Ukraine said Branson. Going around Russia, the biggest country in the world in terms of landmass increases the flying costs.
Currently, Russia charges handsomely for privileges to fly through its airspace. Europe on the other hand does not charge anything for the use of its airspace. If Kremlin makes good of its threat, the Euro may be forced to charge Russian airlines for using their airspaces. Apart from that, royalties paid for the use of its airspace would dry up if most airlines decide to fly around it. This would backfire on the Russians.
More than 75% of the flights that fly through Russian airspace are European and US airlines, with most flights originating from Heathrow airport. British airways, KLM, Lufthansa, Finnair and Airfrance are some of the European airlines flying through this major highway. This explains why Moscow defines a closure of its airspace to these players as a crippling of the airlines of these countries.
Smaller European based low cost airlines, Ryanair and easyjet, have altogether decided not to launch new routes that they had planned in Russia following these new threats. The closure of this air highway would result in a nightmare in transport logistics between Europe and Asia. On the flipside, Asian based airlines such as emirates would benefit from increased bookings.
