Japan Airlines and ANA announce cancellations of all flights to and from Europe
Mar 3, 2022: According to a report by Reuters, Japan Airlines Co Ltd and ANA Holdings Inc said they would cancel all flights to and from Europe on Thursday, citing safety concerns following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
A Japan airlines spokesperson said, “We are continuously monitoring the situation, but given the present situation in Ukraine and the different risks, we have decided to cancel flights,”
ANA Cargo’s website said the suspension of flights was due to the “high possibility of its operations not being able to overfly Russia due to the current Ukraine situation.”
The ANA said it would also cancel eight flights to and from London, Paris and Frankfurt on Friday. A Tokyo-Brussels flight due to carry vaccines on the return leg will be routed over central Asia, it said, adding all cargo flights will operate.
The two airlines, which typically use Russian airspace for flights to Europe, are among a growing number of carriers that have cancelled flights between Europe and North Asia in the wake of the crisis.
The Russian airspace has been barred for airlines from EU and Canada in response to sanctions on Russian airlines, but Japan has made no such announcement. According to a spokesman for the flight tracking website FlightRadar24, ANA and JAL operate about 60 flights a week from Russian airspace between Tokyo and London, Paris, Frankfurt and Helsinki.
Finnair, which initially canceled its Tokyo flights after initially losing access to Russian airspace, said Wednesday it would resume four weekly Helsinki-Tokyo flights with new routes and 13-hour flight times which is more than the previous 9.5 hours.
The enforced longer routes by airlines will add to fuel costs and lower the amount of cargo that can be carried in an already competitive market for air freight that is exacerbating pandemic-related issues in the global supply chain.
Korean Airlines was still flying over Russian airspace on Thursday, but Taiwanese planes are now avoiding Russian airspace and flying over China and Central Asia, according to FlightRadar24 tracking data.
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