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More airlines to avoid Ukraine's airspace over possible Russian invasion

Some airlines are already avoiding the airspace over eastern Ukraine as tensions remain high in the region following Russian troops build-up.

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Dutch airline KLM says it will halt flights to Ukraine and through the country's airspace, while Germany's Lufthansa is also considering a suspension of its operations to the region.

More airlines are likely to avoid Ukraine's airspace amid insurance issues after a US warning that Russia could invade at any time.

Leading European carriers have also decided to stop flights over Ukrainian airspace, a flight operations advisory firm said on Monday.

Dutch airline KLM said it would halt flights to Ukraine and through the country's airspace, while Germany's Lufthansa said it was considering a suspension.

British Airways (BA) flights between London and Asia on Monday appeared to be avoiding the airspace, according to flight tracking service FlightRadar24.

A BA pilot on Sunday said on Twitter that there was a longer flight time for freighter service from London to Bangkok because of "current geo-politics".

BA did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

A long flight time today at 12h12m for our freighter from LHR to BKK - current geo-politics making itself felt on the flight plan pic.twitter.com/fveFg1Vx50
— Captain Mark 💙 (@markparbhoo) February 12, 2022

'Back into an MH17 scenario'

"My guess would be that Ukraine will become unavailable pretty soon if what we've seen over the weekend crystallises into a couple of more carriers actually pulling the pin," said Mark Zee, founder of flight operations advisory firm OPSGROUP.

"I don't think it will be government advice that's doing it so much as it will be insurance-based unavailability or carriers looking at other carriers. So if you have KLM, Lufthansa and British Airways, for example, deciding not to overfly Ukraine at all, we're almost back into an MH17 scenario," he said.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine in 2014, killing all 298 people on board, two-thirds of them Dutch citizens.

Zee said that the avoidance of Ukraine's airspace would have the biggest routing impact on airlines from neighbouring countries but that it was not expected to add much to the cost of long-haul flights.

Ukraine Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said on Sunday the government had allocated $591.98 million to ensure flight safety for insurance and leasing companies to guarantee the continuation of flights through its airspace.