Ukraine war: global aviation industry takes another hit as more countries ban Russian flights

US has joined the EU, Canada and many others in banning Russian flights from their airspace as a response to invasion of Ukraine

Analysts say the flight bans are another blow to an aviation industry that was just beginning to recover from pandemic-inflicted damage

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The US on Tuesday announced a ban on Russian flights from American airspace, following similar moves by the European Union and Canada after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Photo: Reuters

Published: 10:30pm, 2 Mar 2022Updated: 4:54pm, 9 Mar 2022

The air travel industry is set to take another hit following on from the Covid-19 pandemic, as more countries move to ban Russian planes from their airspace in response to the invasion of Ukraine.

“The sanctions and airspace bans [on Russia] will only exacerbate the damage already brought by Covid,” said Shukor Yusof, founder of aviation consultancy Endau Analytics.

“We are in unprecedented times and aircraft financiers, lessors and manufacturers are scrambling to mitigate losses, and chart near-term strategies for their balance sheets to stay afloat. It is looking grim as this conflict is unlikely to be resolved any time soon.”

“Whatever little recovery airlines had just started to see from Covid is now being pushed back, not by months but years. Russia is not Iraq or Afghanistan but a big geopolitical player that can hurt the global economy.”

US President Joe Biden said in his first State of the Union address on Tuesday that the United States is closing its airspace to all Russian flights in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, joining many other nations including the UK, Canada and the European Union.