Russia closes its airspace to 36 countries, including Sweden. Charter companies Tui and Ving are now changing their flight routes to Asia.

Russia's closing of its airspace to 36 countries, including Sweden, in response to the EU's decision to close its airspace to Russian flights, has consequences for Swedish charter flights.

”"It is mainly our Thai travelers who are affected. We have previously rerouted our flights so that we do not fly over the eastern part of Ukraine. Now we will no longer fly over either Russia or Ukraine. We are flying other routes. We will be flying further south," says Adam Györki, press manager at Tui.

Both Adam Györki and Anna Hagberg at Ving believe that the new flight routes will only lead to marginally longer flight times in some cases.

”"There have been some concerns from our travelers about flights over Russian airspace. Above all, it is the flights to the east that are affected, our flights to Thailand and the regular flights to Dubai and other destinations. We are instead flying over Romania and further south. There may also be a stopover," says Anna Hagberg.

Travelers who are at their destinations and those about to travel should have been informed via text message about the new flight routes.

It was on Sunday that the EU and Canada decided to close their airspace to Russian flights. 

Finnair has announced that a closure of Russian airspace would have a significant financial impact due to the major impact on traffic between Europe and Asia.

Finnair fell more than 20 percent in Monday trading after the company dropped its forecasts given in its latest interim report. The airline has many routes to Asia that are not expected to be financially viable if the company cannot fly through Russia.

Source: Nyhetsbyrån Direkt