EU wings clipped by Russian over flight ban

By Rhod Mackenzie

Now anybody with even a limited knowledge of geography knows that Russia is the largest country in the world, its landmass is larger then the USA and Canada combined,it stretches from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean and has 11 different time zones the distance between Moscosow and Vladivostok is 5,603 miles.To put that into perspective the distance between London and Los Angeles including the Atlantic Ocean is only 5,400 miles.

When the US and EU introduced their 'Shock and Awe ' sanctions that they intended to use as weapons to destroy the Russian economy and bring the country to its knees.
One of the measures they introduced was a ban on all Russian flights into EU airspace, the US insitituted a similar ban. This obvioulsy stopped all Russian flights into Europe and all air passenger traffic stopped

After this ban was intorodced Russia decided to close its skies to all airlines from countries that it deemed unfrien wich is the US/EU/G7 and assorted vassal states So now the airlines of the EU and US are suffering losses due to the closure of the skies over Russia to them. However, one persons loss is another person's gain, so airlines from BRICS and SCO member countries plus others who did not slavishly follow the sanctions took advantage of this serious miscalculation by the US and EU politicians
As usual the politicians who thought up the sanctions did not think them through and understand yet again the 'Law of Unintended Consequences

Which countries and airlines are we talking about?
Lets look the effects,according to Bloomberg flights to Asia for air carriers from the US,UK and EU have become significantly more expensive , since Russia airspace closed its airspace to them. According to the publication, planes of Air France-KLM and other airlines when flying to Japan have to bypass Russian territory by going through the airspace of Kazakhstan and Mongolia, which increases the flight time by hours.

The route from Paris to Tokyo now lasts around 14 hours. The British carrier Virgin Atlantic was forced to suspend flights to Hong Kong. the Finnish carrier Finnair is experiencing difficulties when flying to Japan, China and Korea. The flight time to Tokyo has increased from 9.5 to 14 hours depending on the season and the weather This . Increased fuel consumption has made these flights unprofitable compared to some of their rivals no affected by the flight ban. At the same time, flying over Russia, according to Finnair, decreases the duration of flights to Asia by 25-40%.

Another problem is that longer flights will force European and American companies to replace planes, increase crew costs and figure out how planes can fly longer and with less stress in the new environment.
At the same time, India's Air India has gained an advantage over its Western counterparts: last week, Air India's flight times to the US and Canada are about an hour and a half faster than those of Air Canada and United Airlines and much cheaper. On comparable routes, Air India used about 7.5 tonnes less fuel than its western rivals, a saving of about $8,500 per flight.

Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific also uses Russian airspace . it has a non-stop flight on the Hong Kong - New York route, which had previously been operated outside Russian airspace. in.

"There are other major Chinese and Asian airlines operating in Russian airspace and they have really siezed the commercial advantage offered by the shutting out of their Western rivals.

The Middle Eastern airlines, who are state owned decided against imposing sanctions against Russia, continue to use Russian skies. This gives Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways PJSC - the three dominant players in the region - a decisive advantage over their counterparts in Europe and the US.

"Of course, the ban on flights over Russia was a serious blow to Western airlines, given the increased price of aviation fuel. In addition, over the past eight months there has been a significant shift between European and Asian carriers on routes connecting destinations in these continents. More and more passengers prefer to fly with Asian airlines,
"Western airlines are looking at options and scenarios to minimise the negative impact of the current situation. For example, the use of a code-sharing mechanism, where several airlines operate a flight together. This means that the flight is physically operated by an Asian airline and part of the tickets are sold by a European company. But at this stage its not working.
"So the major benefiiaries of the embargo on Russian flights into European are the airlines of countries that have not imposed sanctions on Russia.

"European countries have actually punished themselves".

"Traditionally, there is a very large flow of passengers and cargo between Asia and Europe, so European airlines actively flew in this direction and made good money. After the introduction of sanctions, some companies stopped flying altogether because it became unviable economically - the travel time increased. As a result, the cost of fuel has increased, as well as many other things related to flight maintenance and navigation," the interlocutor noted.

"Those who did not fall for the US/EU lets punish Russia sanctions hysteria have gained a competitive advantage. Now they are calmly flying and earning money in this direction," "no matter how the Europeans try to circumvent sanctions using the airlines of Asian countries,these airlines will not give up such an opportunity to make good momey out of the stupidity of the decisions of Western politicians

"There is only one way out of the current situation that suits both Russia us and Europe - the lifting of sanctions. Only then will it be possible to have normal cooperation on mutually beneficial terms. Because there is no particular advantage for either party in having closed a sky.