Originally Posted by
plunet
The ban for western airlines to overfly Russian airspace will be a significant detraction for European airlines to restart their routes, whereas the Chinese airlines and indeed Cathay do continue to overfly Russian airspace, and this gives them considerable commercial advantage. Where the business case to restart routes to Asia would usually include overflying Russia this will be an additional hurdle.
Haven't understood why the government don't level the playing field here, either by:-
a) Banning any flights that overfly Russian airspace from landing/taking off from the UK, thereby forcing those airlines to reroute and incur the same additional cost, while also depriving Russia of the overflight payments
b) Introducing an extra charge on any flights that overfly Russia, roughly equivalent to commercial advantage they gain from overflying Russia.
Maybe there are ICAO rules that prevent either of the above, or maybe the DoT just can't be arsed about it. But it would create an even competition.