A war situation is going on between Russia and Ukraine, and it has already caused a lot of issues around the globe. If you are not situated in a nearby country, you might think that you will face no issues whatsoever. However, this is not how things are going. Several things are affected, and one of them is traveling.
So, you just made an international travel plan, but suddenly you cannot travel? The reason could be this conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Nobody knows for how long the situation will stay the same. So, here we have brought all the interesting and necessary information about the impact on travel due to the conflict in Russia and Ukraine.
How is this conflict the reason for all the issues happening with airlines?
Airlines may seem like moving passengers from one place to another, but there is a lot more than that going on. In this process of taking off from one location and landing to the other location, the airlines have to meet the rules and regulations of flying in the airspace. Moreover, it is necessary to maintain the safety of the passengers.
Due to the situation that is currently going on, different borders from Ukraine are closed for air space. Well, that’s not only about Ukraine, as Russia is also messing up with other countries. As the United Kingdom banned any civilian aircraft from Russian airspace, Russia has done the same for the United Kingdom making traveling even more difficult.
Along with the United Kingdom, several other countries are announcing closing their airspace for any Russian airlines. These countries include:
- Poland
- Czech Republic
EASA is the “European Union Aviation Safety Agency.” It has warned the Ukrainian border and its surrounding areas as high-risk areas. Similarly, different countries like India, The United States, Bangladesh, and many others had already informed their people to leave Ukraine. This issue has been going on for some time now before the war started.
Flights going between Russia and Ukraine
As Russia has its troops and all sorts of military equipment ready to start the conflict, the Russian Defense ministry sends a message to Ukraine about the risk to the flight safety and airline issues. It was clear that there would be the usage of military-level weapons. This was to stop flights in this region as well as control other air traffic.
As a result, the civil flights in the region were halted. All of this resulted in the total closure of flights in this area because of the high-security risk in the airspace. You can read more to know about further details of the incident.
You can find USA travel advisories here – Travel Advisories (state.gov)
What about flying to other parts of Europe?
Flying to some other parts of Europe which are not near this high-risk area may be possible, but there are still flight delays because of mismanagement of the routes. This has caused several flights to delay including:
- Lufthansa’s Flights
- SAS Airlines flights
- UIA Flights
These were just a few. Read here to know more about the different airlines, their risks, and their reasons for scrambling. While some of the flights are delayed, some are completely replaced or canceled depending on the airspace conditions.
International travel for other parts of the world
Although there has been huge mismanagement in the European region, the flights for the other parts of the world are operating almost as usual. The safety issues and airline mismanagement are only happening in the regions surrounding Ukraine and not in the other parts of the world.
What if your flight has to fly over the Russia-Ukraine region?
With all this fuss going around about the scrambling airspace, most people ask if their flight will be rerouted, delayed, or proceeded if it was to fly over the unsafe region. The answer can be taken from the flight map for the past 24 hours. If we take a look at the flight routes for the 24th of February, there is a space above this unsafe area.
The reason for this space is that no flights are flying over this region because there are dangers like missiles as well as fighter planes always being in the air. While the safety of passengers is the topmost priority for any airline, they usually reroute the flight.
If you were going for a flight that had to fly over this specific air space, you do not need to worry because agencies like IATA are helping airlines plan better routes for their flights to fly to the other safe parts of the world.
Traveling to and from Russia is severely affected.
Russia has closed its borders in its airspace for different types of flights. For example, the border with Ukraine is currently closed for all civilian flights. Russia is even restricting some of its domestic flights, which might be surprising for some people.
Different airlines from different countries, including the UK, Poland, Czech Republic, and the USA, have declared to suspend air travel to and from Russia. Even Canada has advised its citizens to avoid traveling to any area surrounding Russia and Ukraine only because of this unsafe situation.
All of this is not as simple as it seems because ministers and other administrative officials of different countries have been tweeting and making public announcements about their flights going to Russia and Russian flights coming to their country.
Final Verdict
With this conflict between Russia and Ukraine currently going on, everyone has this question of how long the situation will stay the same. Some countries have only made short-term restrictions, while some are unclear about how long this issue will persist.
One thing is clear that for the time when this issue is there, traveling will be highly impacted, especially for the flights whose route is near to the airspace of Ukraine and Russia.
Ending with a quote that will go down in history: When the US government offered to evacuate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky from Kyiv early Saturday, he said thanks but no thanks, per the SCMP.
“The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride.”
Get latest on the live situation on russia ukraine conflict here – The Russia-Ukraine War: Latest News (wsj.com)
Read more travel-related articles on – travelaroundplaces.com
Photo by Artur Voznenko