Russian-European airspace caused by the cancellation of several flights between China and Europe, the impact of Chinese airlines

　　After Germany, the Czech Republic, Poland and other EU countries, as well as the United Kingdom, Canada and other countries successively announced the closure of airspace to Russian civil aviation aircraft, the Russian Satellite Network quoted the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency as saying that in response, Russia has restricted airlines from 36 countries in Russia. Airspace flight.

　　Affected by this, many European airlines have temporarily suspended flights from Europe to Asia, including China-Europe routes, but Chinese airlines are still flying normally to and from Europe.

Russian-European airspace

　　European Commission President von der Leyen issued a statement on February 27, local time, saying that all Russian aircraft, including passenger and private jets, were closed to EU airspace.

On the same day, Canada announced similar actions.

　　Prior to this,

and other countries have separately announced to close their airspace to Russia.

Since February 27, several flights from Russia have turned around and returned to Russia mid-flight.

　　Since February 28, many European airlines have begun to announce the suspension of flights between Asia and Europe, including China.

　　Among them, Air France and KLM stated that they would temporarily suspend flights to and from China, South Korea and Japan due to the need to study flight routes to avoid Russian airspace in order to comply with "the directives of French/Dutch and international authorities".

　　Finnair also announced that it will cancel all flights to and from Seoul, Osaka, Tokyo and Shanghai from now until March 6.

Why was the China-Europe route cancelled?

　　It is understood that about 600 flights taking off or landing in Europe every day will fly over Russian airspace, and most airlines usually pass through Russian airspace when flying on the Eurasian route.

　　Nearly 195,000 commercial flights will pass through Russian airspace in 2021, according to the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency, up from more than 300,000 before the pandemic.

Why does the mutual airspace between Russia and Europe affect the flights between Europe and China, Japan and South Korea?

　　The reporter consulted a number of aviation industry insiders and learned that before this, flying over Russian airspace from Europe and other countries to China, Japan, South Korea and other countries was the most economical flight route. For example, on the evening of the 27th, KLM had a flight departing from Seoul, all the way back to Amsterdam via China, Central Asia and Turkey.

　　However, choosing to fly around means more time and fuel costs.

Take KLM's circumnavigation flight as an example. The flight time of this flight is 13 hours and 30 minutes, which is nearly

longer than before the circumnavigation. According to the calculation of the fuel consumption per hour of the Boeing 777 during the cruise phase , the flight time is 2 hours. An

hour means

fuel.

　　A number of airline operation control departments also revealed to reporters that in addition to longer flight times, detours also need to re-apply for more countries to fly over the airspace. It usually takes a week or two to apply for a new flight plan. The big reason why Air France, KLM and Finnair suddenly cancelled flights to China, Japan and South Korea.

Whether it affects Chinese airlines

　　According to the reporter's understanding, at present, Chinese airlines flying China-Europe routes can still enter the airspace of Russia, the European Union and the United Kingdom, so the flights have not been affected for the time being.

However, at present, some domestic airlines have begun to plan to fly around in order to cope with the uncertain international situation.

　　For Chinese airlines, the more direct impact of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict is the increase in fuel costs.

At present, Brent crude oil futures have exceeded 100 US dollars / barrel, and the cost of fuel is the biggest cost of airlines.

　　Since last year, aviation kerosene prices have basically been on the rise. The reasons for losses mentioned by many listed airlines in their 2021 performance forecasts include the rise in rigid costs such as oil prices.

For 2022, many airlines also believe that fuel prices are likely to remain high, and the current Russian-Ukrainian conflict has further pushed up oil prices.