By Anne Kauranen

HELSINKI. (Reuters). Airlines feared a long-running sanctions war as the EU had banned Russian airlines. Moscow also pledged to retaliate.

As the airline crisis impacted airlines shares, dozens of flights were cancelled and detoured on expensive routes.

Because of the rerouting, Kazakhstan saw its airspace triple in size and more flights than ever before.

Following Sunday’s European Union ban on Russian airlines due to fighting in Ukraine, airline executives stated that Russia would prohibit them from using routes through Russia.

The Kremlin stated Monday that it would respond to Western sanctions on Russia’s aviation sector.

Dmitry Peskov, spokesperson for the Kremlin, stated that reciprocity will be the guiding principle and that our interests will be considered first.

Airliners will not have the ability to access Russia’s airspace and must divert flight south to avoid tension areas in the Middle East.

European airline and airport operator shares fell by 3 to 6 percent in the early trading, while Finnair’s national carrier saw its shares fall 23% and cut its guidance.

Lufthansa in Germany announced this week that Lufthansa’s subsidiaries Eurowings, Austrian Airlines and Lufthansa would cancel 30 flights from Russia. AirBaltic, Latvia stated it would extend the suspension of flights to Russia to May 31.

Lufthansa announced that flights from Europe to Tokyo or Seoul will have to take detours, as the company did not possess sufficient flight rights.

Asia Singapore Airlines (OTC 🙂 stated Monday that they would be suspending flights between Singapore & Moscow until further notice due to “operational reasons”.

Finnair has scrapped 2022’s guidance due to significant business loss. Finnair uses the route through Russia from Europe via Helsinki, and it is using the route between Europe and Asia.

Korean Air, Japan Airlines, and Japan’s ANA Holdings stated Monday that they continue to use Russian airspace. However, no plans were made to expand flights to Russia or Europe in order to replace cancelled flights by European airlines.

Due to COVID travel restrictions, there has been a low demand for South Korea and Japan.

Airline Swiss is also owned by Lufthansa Group. It stated that it will continue flying to Russia because Switzerland hasn’t banned Russian airlines.

MORE SUPPLY CHAIN DISRUPTION

Cargo traffic will be affected by flight cancellations or airspace shut downs, which could further exacerbate global supply chain woes due to the slowdown in cargo handling around the world.

Lufthansa Cargo announced that the Russian conflict is causing Lufthansa to cease using Russian airspace.

U.S.-based United Parcel FedEx Corp and Service Inc (NYSE) announced they had stopped deliveries to Russia.

According to global aircraft lenders, they have been forced to end hundreds of airplane leases with Russian carrier carriers due to EU sanctions.

Aeroflot, Russia, announced Sunday that it will cancel all European flights after Josep Borrell (EU foreign policy chief) said that the EU has decided to shut down its airspace for Russian traffic.

Officials in the United States say that similar measures are being considered by the United States, although they have yet to decide.

According to the U.S. government, citizens must consider flying out of Russia for commercial purposes immediately. The reason is that more airlines are cancelling flights from Russia as other countries restrict their airspace. [L1N2V307H]