newstodate.aero

Aug 15, 2024 (newstodate): The closure of the Russian airspace for airlines from "unfriendly" and other western countries has a deep impact on the Europe-China market.
   Airlines banned from the Russian airspace are thus required to operate longer routes, for instance forcing British Airways to extend the flights between London and Beijing by some 1,000 nautical miles, leading to the decision to suspend services from the end of the current summer 2024 schedule.
   According to Cirium data, all Europe-China seats are down by seven percent. But while European operators are down by 52 percent, Chinese operators operating undisturbed through Russian airspace have grown their capacity by 22 percent.
   As a result, some 77 percent of the market is now held by Chinese airlines, up by 20 percentage-points compared to pre-pandemic levels.
   Due to its geographical position, Finland is the market worst hit by the closure of Russian airspace; formerly offering the prime service between Northern Europe and China, Finnair is now down by 90 percent in seat capacity on these lanes.
    China remains on Finnair's route map, albeit with only two weekly rotations between Helsinki and Shanghai; before the Covid-19, Finnair was operating 38 weekly flights from Helsinki to six destinations in China - Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, Xian, Nanjing, Guangzhou, and to Hong Kong.
    Finnair was actually the first carrier to launch direct non-stop flights between Northern Europe and China, starting flights to Beijing from June 2, 1988.