Status: 03/31/2022 08:11 a.m
The blocking of Russian airspace is a burden on German airlines. They now have to fly expensive detours to destinations in Asia. This also affects the supply chains.
Around a fifth of all air freight to and from Germany comes from Asia: Goods from China, Japan and Korea find their way to German supermarkets in cargo planes and passenger planes. But at the moment, the otherwise punctual goods are being delayed more and more often – because they are being transported by plane. Because the flight times have increased.
The reason: Europe’s airspace has been closed to Russian airlines since the end of February due to the invasion of Ukraine. On February 28, Russia reacted: The largest country in the world in terms of area closed its airspace to airlines flying over from Europe. The result: Instead of flying via Siberia, German airlines now mostly fly via Turkey, Georgia and Kazakhstan to get to China. On the one hand, the airlines can fly around the Ukraine as a war zone and, on the other hand, the blocked Russian airspace to the south.
Long flight times, higher kerosene consumption
This increases the distances that the planes have to cover and the flights take longer: the flight time from Germany’s largest airport in Frankfurt am Main to Beijing has increased by more than an hour due to the closure of Russian airspace. Overall, flight times to destinations in Asia increased by around 10 to 15 percent.
This has consequences for airlines: If a flight takes longer, the plane needs more kerosene to be able to cover the route. With a Boeing 777F, such as that used by Lufthansa Cargo, that’s around 6.6 tons of kerosene per hour, explains Anke Keilich, a Lufthansa Cargo pilot in an interview tagesschau.de: “If a Boeing 777F flies from Frankfurt to Beijing, it needs almost ten tons more fuel if you allow for a buffer of around half an hour of flight time. If a full charge is then planned for the plane, refueling will be tight. “
On the return flight, the situation is even more extreme, according to the captain: “Return flights from Asia take longer than the outward flights because you always fly against the wind. That’s why we need even more fuel for a flight from Beijing to Frankfurt and can therefore load less freight .” A situation that she herself has already experienced in the past few weeks on her Asia flights: “It has happened recently that we had to leave freight because we were taking more fuel with us.”
Take more fuel or the whole cargo?
Aviation expert Cord Schellenberg explains in an interview that the more kerosene the planes take with them they leave with the goods to be transported tagesschau.de: “There is always a permissible total weight for an aircraft, and that is made up of the empty weight of the aircraft, the fuel tank, the loaded freight and of course the passengers on board.” If the kerosene requirement increases due to a longer route, an airline has to limit the freight and number of passengers to be transported: “Otherwise you don’t have enough kerosene to cover the route non-stop,” says the expert.
Many airlines are now faced with the question: take more kerosene and fly the route non-stop – or transport the full freight and stop over to refuel? But the calculation is not that simple at the moment, reports pilot Keilich. Because of the pandemic, there are hardly any destinations where the airlines can plan stopovers for their planes without any problems. “The pandemic continues to make entry into many countries more difficult,” says Anke Keilich.
Machines cannot be used elsewhere
In addition to the higher kerosene consumption, the longer flight routes also create capacity problems, explains Matthias von Randow, General Manager of the Federal Association of the German Aviation Industry (BDL) in an interview tagesschau.de: “Longer flights also mean longer operating times for the crews and the aircraft. The longer flight times therefore reduce the capacities of the airlines, because if an aircraft is in the air longer, it is not available for other operations in the fleet.” In the end, this has consequences for the global supply chains: “Bottlenecks arise for the supply chains, because the capacity for international aviation and thus for international trade is limited.”
In addition, in normal operation around half of the air freight transported by Lufthansa Cargo, for example, is loaded in the cargo hold of passenger planes. Since the beginning of the pandemic two years ago, however, the number of passenger flights to Asia has fallen rapidly – a result of the strict corona policy. As a result, additional freight had to be distributed to the cargo machines. That alone is a challenge, even without loading additional fuel.
Aviation prices will increase
Nevertheless, Matthias von Randow from the BDL does not believe that the situation could threaten the existence of airlines and airport operators: “At the Frankfurt site, for example, we are currently seeing clear signs of recovery after the pandemic. And we do not expect the current war to significantly disrupt this recovery. “
Cord Schellenberg, who does not necessarily expect competitive disadvantages for European airlines and airports, sees it similarly: “I don’t think that the airlines in the Gulf States are winners of the current situation, because the vast majority of European airlines are still flying non-stop and are therefore offering a lot attractive flights.”
However, Schellenberg estimates that freight forwarders in particular will soon be confronted with higher prices for cargo flights: “Freight spaces are in very high demand, the shippers are happy if they get a seat at all. That is why the freight forwarders will also be quite willing to offer the higher Paying freight rates when airlines pass on the high fuel costs to the sender.” He also expects prices to rise for tickets for passenger flights. But: “In the end, the prices will not rise so much that you no longer make a trip or no longer send a package,” says the expert.