[Archyde.com]— Due to the tension in the situation in Ukraine, flight flight advisory company OPSGROUP said on the 14th that more airlines may avoid the airspace of the country.
Dutch airline KLM has said it will suspend flights to Ukraine and flights through the country’s airspace, while Lufthansa of Germany has said it is considering suspending operations.
British Airways (BA) flights between London and Asia on the 14th appear to be avoiding Ukrainian airspace, according to Archyde.com confirming flight tracking service “Flight Radar 24”.
A BA pilot tweeted on the 13th that the flight time of cargo flights from London to Bangkok is getting longer because of “current geopolitical conditions”. No comments have been received from BA so far.
Mark Gee, the founder of OPSGROUP, points out that insurance issues and trends of other companies will affect the flight status. “For example, if KLM, Lufthansa and BA decide not to fly over Ukraine at all, they will almost return to the’MH17’scenario.”
Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine in 2014, killing all 298 crew and passengers. Some airlines had already avoided the airspace after a military aircraft had been shot down before that.
Gee expects that avoidance of Ukrainian airspace will have the greatest impact on the route setting of flights from neighboring countries, but not so much on the cost of long-haul flights.