fallinasleep

Has Cathay made any announcement about its flights to Europe since Russia banned airlines from its airspace?

I know British Airways and all other EU carriers are banned from Russian airspace. That leaves the Middle Eastern carriers and any other carrier that doesn't normally fly over Russian airspace as the best (only?) options to get to Europe at the moment.

Russia is not going to ban mainland carriers, so I am guessing Cathay will benefit from that, but I wonder if CX will decide to stop using Russian airspace for whatever reason.

Today, JL43 NRT-LHR flew an extra c.3500km (adding roughly three hours) via Alaska, Greenland and Iceland in order to bypass Russian airspace. A 12 hour flight turned into a 15 hour flight, but at least it was still feasible without stopping anywhere.

Is there a viable alternative nonstop routing CX can take to Europe without going over Russia?

Singapore_Air

Singapore Airlines flights are not traversing Russian airspace. You can check recent flights yourself at FlightRadar24, for example yesterday's SQ 319: https://www.flightradar24.com/SIA319/2b03753b.

Carfield

Yes for CX, and no for SQ!

CX (mostly cargo now) flights between Hong Kong and Europe/US continue to fly over Russia.

Carfield

SKRan

In this situation, CX is probably seen as a Chinese airline by the Russians - hence no ban

blandy62

Russian airspace is probably less critical to SQ than CX

tauphi

It has nothing to do with China. Lots of airlines still use Russian airspace: Korean Air, Eva Air (Taiwan), Asiana and Air India.

CX HK

I think the poster meant seen as a HK/China airline rather than a British airline, which would be banned from flying in Russian airspace.

CX HK

So it looks like CX stopped flying over Russian airspace today, at least for their HKG-LHR flights; this adds a bit of time to the flight.

Yesterday's CX 251 banked left after entering Kazakhstan instead of continuing up towards Russia: https://www.flightradar24.com/CPA251/2b22c488

:D!

Looks like they made that decision whilst in the air? Otherwise they would not have gone towards Lanzhou initially

Better link https://www.flightradar24.com/data/a...-lxd/#2b22c488

CX HK

True. And it wouldn't be a 2 hour delay if it was planned. CX251 showing a normal flight time again today though... maybe just a one-off? Wonder what happened.

CX HK

CX 251 avoiding Russian airspace again for today's flight.

Carfield

CX 219 has added two and half hours to its flying time tonight too on its way to Manchester. It left HK on time but will arrive at Manchester at 9am - two and half hours later than expected.

https://fr24.com/CPA219/2b261885

It seems that only Mainland Chinese airlines are flying over Russia now. I wonder if it has to do with insurance issues, as a few other airlines like Emirates and FlyDubai, which will suspend flights to and from Russia too.

All the cargo flights to Europe - London CX 255 & Amsterdam CX 271 are all avoiding Russian airspace too.

Carfield

CX HK

I seem to recall seeing Emirates and Pakistan International in Russian airspace (via flightradar) last night. But checking again this morning, it seems that they are all Chinese or Russian airlines now. I wonder if the decision for Russia to seize leased planes had anything to do with it, be it insurance or whatnot.

Cambo

It's due to the sanctions.

IF an airplane breaks down in Russia, the airline will not have an opportunity to sent spare-parts to Russia, to repair the airplane and fly it out again.

And, once an airplane is crippled on the ground, it could become an easy victim to get cannibalized to keep a stolen "local" airplane flying .......

They won't dare to do so with pure China airplanes, though even CX airplanes might be an easy victim.

CX HK

That's a good point. I'm surprised Swire didn't do it earlier... or maybe they wanted to do it low key and not make a big fuss about it.