Lufthansa suspends flights to Russia – government wants to block airspace for Russian machines
Lufthansa is suspending flight connections to Russia and avoiding Russian airspace. The group announced this in the evening. Several countries in Europe have completely closed their airspace to Russian airlines. Germany also wants to take this step.
DThe federal government is preparing to block German airspace for Russian aircraft. Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) supports the blocking and has ordered everything to be prepared for it, his ministry announced on Saturday evening.
Previously, several countries in Europe had already implemented this step. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania imposed a flight ban from midnight on Sunday on aircraft operated by air carriers licensed by the Russian Federation.
The closure of the airspace of the three EU and NATO countries will take place simultaneously and indefinitely, the Ministry of Transport in Vilnius announced on Saturday. There should be exceptions for emergency landings and humanitarian flights. Poland, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria had already closed their airspace to Russian aircraft on Saturday night. Finland also wants to join these measures.
Great Britain excluded machines from the Russian airline Aeroflot from its airspace on Thursday. Moldova also banned Russian aircraft from its airspace on Thursday.
Lufthansa is suspending flights to Russia
Because of the Ukraine war, Lufthansa no longer flies to or via Russia. Due to “the current and emerging regulatory situation”, this applies for seven days, the group announced on Saturday evening. Flights to Russia are therefore suspended. “Flights that are in Russian airspace will leave it again shortly.”
According to data from the Flightradar24 tracking website, a Lufthansa Airbus A340 en route from Frankfurt to Tokyo via Estonia turned around, while a company Airbus A350 from Munich to Seoul via Russia changed course and flew west again.
The Tokyo flight was listed as “diverted” on the Lufthansa website and landed back in Frankfurt around 10 p.m. The machine, which was on its way to Seoul, was supposed to land in Munich shortly before midnight. According to “Flightradar24”, one also returned Boeing 777 of the German freight company Aerologic over Russia, which should fly from Leipzig to Tokyo.
The airline KLM, the Dutch subsidiary of the Air France KLM group, will also be suspending all flights to Russia in the coming week. The move is said to be in line with European sanctions against Russia. In addition, KLM will avoid Russian airspace for the next seven days.
The Polish airline LOT announced on Saturday night that it had suspended its flights to Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Russia closes airspace for several EU countries
Meanwhile, Russia has also closed its airspace to planes from a number of EU countries. According to a statement from the Russian aviation authority, machines from Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and Slovenia are no longer allowed to fly to Russia, as reported by the Tass agency.
The ban also applies to transit flights and overflights through Russian airspace. This is a reaction to corresponding steps by these states.