The world of travel is not exempt from war in Ukraine. Air transport has been severely affected. Lhe sanctions against Russia include a ban on Russian companies operating in the European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States and several other countries around the world..
In retaliation, Russia has closed its airspace to airlines enemy" countries in the Kremlin's terminology (including the EU). Air traffic to Ukraine has been completely halted for safety reasons.
The consequences of the war in Ukraine
Air traffic in Russia will have fallen in capacityThis was mainly due to the suspension of flights to Europe, which generated the highest volume of passengers. Lhe British consultant OAG reports a seat capacity of lower by 27% between January 2022 and 2023 and by almost 28% compared with 2019. ThroughoutEastern EuropeOAG recorded a 24.6% reduction in capacity for the week of 13 February 2023 compared with the same week in 2019.
About Europe, only three overhead lines now remain Belgrade-Moscow Sheremetyevo (2 daily flights) and Belgrade-Saint Petersburg (4 weekly flights) by Air Serbia. On the other hand, there are up to a dozen daily flights between Russia and Istanbul.
Flight times between Europe and Asia have increased. This additional time varies from 30 minutes to 3.5 hours.depending on the airline and destination. The most affected is Finnair. Finnish airlines used to use the route to the North Pole via Russia. Today, Finland has completely lost this geographical advantage. The time spent on its flights to Asia has increased by between 1h30 (Bangkok) and 3h30 (Tokyo) compared with before February 2022.
Average air fares between Europe and Asia will have risen from 20% to 30% by 2022. Soaring oil prices and longer flight times are to blame.
Air transport came to a complete halt, not only in Ukraine but also at many airports close to the conflict zones in Crimea and southern Russia. The Russian airports of Simferopol, Krasnodar and Rostov-on-Don have been closed. Ukraine International Airlines (UIA), the Ukrainian national airline, operates only a few charter flights from Poland.
