News / Western carriers call Russian airspace ban and Chinese advantage 'unfair'

© Sergei Chaiko

European and US airlines are calling for sanctions on Russian airspace to be lifted to unlock unavailable markets and remove the “unfair” competition from Chinese carriers. 

Lufthansa Cargo (LC) told The Loadstar European carriers were “competing on a very unequal playing field” with China, as well as with those from the Persian Gulf and Bosporus.  

“All airlines from these countries benefit from low location costs, low social standards and high government investment in the aviation sector,” it said. 

LC added that, unlike European and American airlines, these carriers had been using Russian airspace for more than two years, with shorter routes providing cost, fuel and time advantages.  

“EU airlines, on the other hand, are increasingly confronted with political conditions that weaken their international competitiveness. These include ever-increasing taxes and fees, high regulatory burdens, additional climate policy requirements and inadequate infrastructure,” added the German carrier. 

When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, many western nations imposed sanctions against Russia, including closing its airspace. Dutch carrier KLM told The Loadstar: “The fact that we do not fly over Russia, while other airlines might, is directly related to the current geo-political situation. This is the reality of the circumstances we face.” 

Lufthansa Cargo argued: “Politicians in Europe must react to this and find new industrial policy answers for the future.”  

Indeed, president of United Cargo Jan Krems also told The Loadstar, on the sidelines of TIACA’s Air Cargo Forum in Miami last week, that the situation was “very unfair”. 

“We have a whole department that’s in Washington to discuss these things; why are all the Chinese carriers allowed to come to the US and fly over Russia, but we have to do everything around?” he said 

“I cannot even fly to India anymore from the US because I cannot overfly Russia. We have to make that equal.” 

Mr Krems added: “For us, the pharma market from India to the US would be booming if we could overfly Russia.”

But he noted the situation had become “more and more equal now than it was in the beginning”.  

“I think Air Hong Kong could fly to the US 50 times a day, whereas we could fly twice a week, or something like that. So now the government has made that stronger,” he explained. 

“But it’s very unfair if somebody can fly over Russia and we cannot.”