BA has been banned from overflying Russia, is QF next?

[offshore171]

Restrictions or not, would passengers be comfortable overflying Russia right now?

 

[gethsemene]

Restrictions or not, would passengers be comfortable overflying Russia right now?

I’m on QF9 tonight, honestly so desperate to see my family I’ll roll the dice, fully expecting my return leg to have been changed to through Perth though. I suspect the DRW routing ends with the Perth changes!

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

I’m on QF9 tonight, honestly so desperate to see my family I’ll roll the dice, fully expecting my return leg to have been changed to through Perth though. I suspect the DRW routing ends with the Perth changes!

Perth should have fully open borders in a few weeks - already allow outbound transits (eg Oz - Per - O/S). But someone did mention/show that Darwin via Middle East to LHR was about the same as Perth to LHR.

Wish you a safe flight and a love-fulfilling family reunion.

 

[Port Melb Cowboy]

Restrictions or not, would passengers be comfortable overflying Russia right now?

Doing it Wednesday night QF9. To paraphrase Ivan Drago “If I die. I dies”

At least I’ll make the paper.

 

[Port Melb Cowboy]

I’m on QF9 tonight, honestly so desperate to see my family I’ll roll the dice, fully expecting my return leg to have been changed to through Perth though. I suspect the DRW routing ends with the Perth changes!

Safe travels, but you’ll be okay mate.

Any chance I could trouble you to upload heaps of pics re: menus and stuff, if at all possible pleas? I’m champing at the bit for Wednesday night. I’ll even buy you a couple of pints in London for doing so?

 

[gethsemene]

Safe travels, but you’ll be okay mate.

Any chance I could trouble you to upload heaps of pics re: menus and stuff, if at all possible pleas? I’m champing at the bit for Wednesday night. I’ll even buy you a couple of pints in London for doing so?

Absolutely I will, on the skybus heading to Melbourne airport now, will post a full TR in here if comrade Putin doesn’t get frisky and confiscate my phone!
It’s obviously been a few years since you’ve been in London if your committing to a few pints at their prices!

 

[Port Melb Cowboy]

Absolutely I will, on the skybus heading to Melbourne airport now, will post a full TR in here if comrade Putin doesn’t get frisky and confiscate my phone!
It’s obviously been a few years since you’ve been in London if your committing to a few pints at their prices!

Hahahahaha Dec 2019 mate, right before the world turned to pot (the last time!)

£7 a pint ($14) is what I pay at the Railway in Port mate so I’m used to getting reamed

 

[Mattg]

They'd be finnished... well not really. AY only really flies to NRT, KIX and ICN at the moment and they're mostly not daily.

I just had a quick look to see how much extra travel time would be added to a route like HEL-HND is Finnair can't use any Russian or Ukranian airspace. It's about a ~45% increase in distance that they would have to fly, making it probably unviable.



I guess if Finnair can adapt its business model (as it's already had to do over the past two years, since so much of Asia has had closed borders) they might be OK.

But those "fly the short northern route to Asia" advertisements haven't aged well.

I guess we might soon be seeing more Finnair long-haul flights from Helsinki and Stockholm to destinations in North America or elsewhere if they have to cancel their flights to Japan, Korea and China, leaving them with spare widebodies over the northern summer.

On a somewhat unrelated note, I'd be looking at buying shares in Anchorage Airport at this point.

 

[dajop]

I just had a quick look to see how much extra travel time would be added to a route like HEL-HND is Finnair can't use any Russian or Ukranian airspace. It's about a ~45% increase in distance that they would have to fly, making it probably unviable.


I guess we might soon be seeing more Finnair long-haul flights from Helsinki and Stockholm to destinations in North America or elsewhere if they have to cancel their flights to Japan, Korea and China, leaving them with spare widebodies over the northern summer.

Even then your routing CLJ-TBS goes right over Crimea, most airlines stick the centre or the Turkish side of the Black sea, so a few more miles as well.

At this point in time, it probably has much less impact than just 2.5 years ago. 4x weekly to ICN, daily to NRT and 3x weekly to KIX. That's 2x daily services. Pre-Covid there were a lot more services (i.e to China, HKG). But of course China is effectively cut off from the rest of the world.

But even to SIN and BKK - big detours in order.

 

[Mattg]

Even then your routing CLJ-TBS goes right over Crimea, most airlines stick the centre or the Turkish side of the Black sea, so a few more miles as well.

At this point in time, it probably has much less impact than just 2.5 years ago. 4x weekly to ICN, daily to NRT and 3x weekly to KIX. That's 2x daily services. Pre-Covid there were a lot more services (i.e to China, HKG). But of course China is effectively cut off from the rest of the world.

But even to SIN and BKK - big detours in order.

Yeah, it was just a rough estimate. Clearly the actual increased distance will be even higher than my estimate. Either way, flights from Helsinki to Japan etc. become commercially unviable.

At least the disruptions to Finnair's SIN & BKK flights should be less, but there could still be some detouring required and added travel time. This could have implications for connections on the HEL-BKK route because currently this flight departs at the start of Helsinki's afternoon bank, turns straight around in BKK, then arrives back in HEL just in time for connections to most European cities. If the flight time between HEL and BKK needs to be significantly extended, the aircraft will either have to leave Helsinki earlier or arrive back later, meaning many connections no longer work in at least one direction.

 

[jrfsp]

Qantas will stop sending its London flights through Russian airspace following similar moves by other carriers amid the worsening conflict in Ukraine.

As recently as Saturday, Qantas confirmed it was maintaining a flight path over northern Russia, more than 800km from the border with Ukraine.

Airlines that operate through the airspace of foreign countries pay a fee to do so and Qantas confirmed it was paying Russia to operate in its airspace.
Qantas’s Darwin-London flights will now fly through the Middle East and southern Europe to the south of Ukraine instead, adding about an hour to the flight time.

“Given the current circumstances and complexities, we’re opting to use one of our alternative flight paths that doesn’t overfly Russia while we continue to monitor this evolving situation,” a Qantas spokesman said.

“We regularly review our flight paths and make any *adjustments we consider prudent.”

The first flight to operate on the alternative route is flight QF2 from London to Darwin, which is due to takeoff on Sunday just before 9pm AEDT.

 

[Port Melb Cowboy]

Qantas will stop sending its London flights through Russian airspace following similar moves by other carriers amid the worsening conflict in Ukraine.

As recently as Saturday, Qantas confirmed it was maintaining a flight path over northern Russia, more than 800km from the border with Ukraine.

Airlines that operate through the airspace of foreign countries pay a fee to do so and Qantas confirmed it was paying Russia to operate in its airspace.
Qantas’s Darwin-London flights will now fly through the Middle East and southern Europe to the south of Ukraine instead, adding about an hour to the flight time.

“Given the current circumstances and complexities, we’re opting to use one of our alternative flight paths that doesn’t overfly Russia while we continue to monitor this evolving situation,” a Qantas spokesman said.

“We regularly review our flight paths and make any *adjustments we consider prudent.”

The first flight to operate on the alternative route is flight QF2 from London to Darwin, which is due to takeoff on Sunday just before 9pm AEDT.

Thanks for that info. Very informative

 

[openseat]

Interesting in the story in the Australian that passengers were questioning the airline before the flight and QF invited passengers to come forward to discuss the matter.

 

[jrfsp]

Thanks for that info. Very informative

Statement also released on the Qantas newsroom.

Id expect schedules to be updated shortly with the longer flight time

 

[Port Melb Cowboy]

Statement also released on the Qantas newsroom.

Id expect schedules to be updated shortly with the longer flight time

Already changed my pick-up time with the limo company. An extra hour on the Dreamliner. Can’t complain with that.

 

[jrfsp]

Already changed my pick-up time with the limo company. An extra hour on the Dreamliner. Can’t complain with that.

QF might
In all seriousness with the rising fuel prices and longer routings i wouldnt be surprised to see fuel surcharges added to the LHR route

 

[Port Melb Cowboy]

QF might
In all seriousness with the rising fuel prices and longer routings i wouldnt be surprised to see fuel surcharges added to the LHR route

I own a transport company and I’m considering the same. People will either understand, or they won’t.

If they stopped me at the gate and told me I had to pay $400 more in fuel levy, I’d stump up. 2 years of no travel so I’d probably pay $2000 if challenged to do so I’m that desperate to get away hahahahaha.

 

[justinbrett]

QF might
In all seriousness with the rising fuel prices and longer routings i wouldnt be surprised to see fuel surcharges added to the LHR route

I wouldn‘t be surprised to see DRW dropped and replaced with DXB or SIN.

 

[jrfsp]

I wouldn‘t be surprised to see DRW dropped and replaced with DXB or SIN.

It will be interesting to see how demand holds up too, its not like it was starting off a strong base. LHR might well drop to daily if loads drop off

 

[justinbrett]

It will be interesting to see how demand holds up too, its not like it was starting off a strong base. LHR might well drop to daily if loads drop off

Or even terminate at DXB and hand you over to EK.

if this conflict gets worse, codesharing on LAX-LHR might be an idea.