West must look at reopening Russian airspace, says former BA boss

The West must start to prepare for reopening Russian airspace to ease pressure on airlines, the former boss of British Airways Willie Walsh has said.

Russian airspace, which spans 11 time zones, was shut by Western governments shortly after Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February.

Middle Eastern and Chinese airlines have continued to fly over Russia, however – though passenger services by the latter have been limited by Beijing’s zero-Covid policies.

Mr Walsh, now head of global airlines body IATA, said he expects China to ease its coronavirus restrictions over the coming year, freeing the population to travel by air.

In such an eventuality, Chinese airlines would hold a commercial advantage over the likes of British Airways, whose flights are being delayed by up to four hours to avoid Russian airspace.

Mr Walsh told a conference in Geneva: “We have to look at the reopening of Russian airspace.

“From an ideological point of view… we should be looking to reopen Russian airspace to have it accessible to all airlines to transit through the traditional Siberian flights so that Europe can access Asia in the most efficient way.”

Mr Walsh said that the reopening of Russian airspace should not take while the Ukraine war is continuing, however.

In 2019, Russia received $1.7bn in so-called overflight charges, the largest amount globally, according to the UN-sponsored body ICAO.

Mr Walsh said that the Russian and Ukrainian airspace bans has become a “major issue” for airlines as the skies above Europe become increasingly crowded.

In recent weeks airlines on the Continent have started lobbying Brussels to review the Russian airspace ban.

The pressure from airlines came despite a Dutch court in November finding three men guilty of shooting down Malaysian Airlines MH17 in 2014. The trio were part of a Russian armed group deemed responsible for the downing of the jet, which killed 298 people.

But Mr Walsh said: “If you look at the closure of Ukrainian airspace, Russian airspace, and other parts of the world, the amount of traffic that's flowing through Europe has increased over certain routes, and that's not sustainable.

“So longer term, we're going to have to see a return to more normal operations.

“I think we have to hope that the hostilities end when the war ends.”

Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Atlantic and a close friend of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, told the Telegraph in November that he backed a ban on Chinese airlines coming to the UK via Russian airspace.

Shai Weiss, Virgin Atlantic’s chief executive, said UK and EU leaders must enforce a “level-playing field” among airlines in relation to Russian overflights.

Although hopeful that China’s draconian zero-Covid rules would be relaxed, Mr Walsh condemned Beijing’s approach to date.

He said: “Restrictions have very little of any positive impact on constraining or reducing the transmission of the virus.

“[It is an] important message for governments and regulators around the world.

“All of the analysis that has been done, whether it's by ourselves or by other independent parties shows that, at best, it [restrictions] slowed down the peak by a couple of days, days, not weeks, not months, days, when the economic impact of the restrictions that were put in place was devastating for many industries.”