A new iron curtain extends over part of European airspace after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
If airlines were already prohibited from flying over Ukraine, but also countries such as Moldova, Belarus and part of Russia for security reasons, now
some European countries have approved restrictions on their territory for Russian companies
, such as Aeroflot, Nordwind or Nordavia.
In response, Russia has targeted companies from countries it claims are supporting Ukraine.
This means that
we return to a scenario of restrictions in part of the skies
, this time not imposed as a consequence of the pandemic, but of the war.
This affects Russian companies, which cannot enter German, Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian airspace, and airlines from countries such as Poland, the Czech Republic or Bulgaria, which will not be able to fly over Russia either.
Companies like Lufthansa or British Airways will not fly over Russian space.
Germany said yesterday that it is preparing to close its airspace to commercial airline flights, as punishment for the invasion, and
the Baltic countries will do the same, which are precisely the ones that are assuming part of the traffic diverted
by the closure of Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus.
Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania
will only allow Russian airlines to enter their airspace for emergency landings and humanitarian flights.
"Sanctions and restrictions will be more successful if they are broad and general. Therefore, Latvia will decide on possible actions in coordination with the other Baltic states, Lithuania and Estonia," Latvian Transport Minister Talis Linkaits said in a statement.
The companies
Companies are already doing it
.
The Latvian airline airBaltic suspends its flights to Russia (it has already done so with Ukraine) starting this Saturday "due to the growing risk and the restrictions imposed", while
the German Lufthansa
has said that it will not fly over Russian airspace in the next seven days.
The Baltic countries had already banned commercial flights from Belarus since last spring after an Irish airline Ryanair flight covering the Athens-Vilnius route was diverted to the Belarusian capital, Minsk, in order to arrest a dissident journalist. who was on board.
Russia, for its part, has closed its airspace to
aircraft linked to Bulgaria, Poland and the Czech Republic
due to "unfriendly decisions" of these authorities, "said the Russian air regulator Rosaviatsia. This closure also affects flights in transit .
new hit
This partial and selective closure of part of the European skies
represents a new blow to an air sector
that was already beginning to get its head back after two years of the pandemic.
It has been the sector most affected by mobility restrictions and the brutal collapse of passenger traffic.
Now joins the war,
which throws more uncertainty,
not only because of all these closures, but also because of the possibility that demand will contract and reserves will fall for the summer, and because of the rise in the price of oil, which also has a impact on the income statements of some airlines that, in some cases, are already resisting thanks to the public bailouts of their respective governments.
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