Representatives of European air carriers are forced to “hint” to their politicians that sanctions are sanctions, and somehow they will have to fly through Russia. Because some of them have already fallen into a stalemate. In particular, this applies to the Finnish Finnair, which found itself in a very difficult financial situation. This assessment was voiced in an interview with Izvestia by aviation expert Roman Gusarov.
Recall that the other day, the CEO of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), in the past – the head of British Airways, William Walsh called “to think about restoring flights through Russian airspace.” Why this call has become relevant, the expert also voiced – according to analysts, China will return to the “air map” in the foreseeable future, while “closed for covid”, and its airlines will receive an indisputable advantage over the Europeans – since no sanctions against Russia were introduced. Read more at this link.
In the meantime, according to the aviation expert, the Europeans have become victims of their own sanctions – they have to fly around the vast territory of Russia when flying to Asia. Moreover, for some countries, the airspace is almost completely closed. “A vivid example is Finland, which is located in such a way that it has Russia on all sides. And flying around Russia will practically double the duration of the route, in general it is completely unprofitable and very expensive. Finnair has practically stopped flying,” Mr. Gusarov said. As a result, the airline has a severe crisis and mass layoffs. At the same time, when China returns, the same massive Chinese tourist flow that Europe is counting on will also “go to” Chinese carriers, if the situation is not changed in any way.
“Chinese and Asian airlines fly through Russia without restrictions, which means they will fly faster and cheaper. And all shippers and passengers will fly them. And European citizens, including Asian ones, will fly. And the European ones will become uncompetitive,” added Mr. Gusarov. So according to him, Walsh's speech was directed at European politicians, as IATA represents the interests of air carriers. However, European politicians, according to him, are unlikely to refuse to “pay a gigantic price for their political ambitions” and the aviation sector’s “timid hint” that Russia is not going anywhere and that it is necessary to fly is unlikely to be heard.
< p>In the meantime, Finnair continues to lay off employees and close flights. And not only her. Virgin Atlantic, for example, stopped working in Hong Kong – just referring to the difficulties due to the closure of Russian airspace.
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