FT: EU airlines find it unfair that carriers from China fly over Russia

The newspaper notes that European air carriers consider such conditions to be discrimination.

“Flying between Paris and Seoul, you have to add three hours of time, and Chinese carriers flying over Russia get an unfair advantage over us,” Ben Smith, CEO of Air France-KLM, told the publication.

The head of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Transport, Henrik Hololei, previously expressed the opinion that Russia should not charge international airlines for flights over Siberia after the restrictions imposed against the background of the Russian special operation in Ukraine are lifted.

In April last year, it became known that the plane of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was forced to cross the North Pole in order to bypass Russian airspace.