How is the Ukraine – Russia situation affecting aviation in Europe?

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has raised serious questions and has other difficulties in Europe’s travel industry, which is already highly damaged by the Coronavirus.

Recently, the European Union banned Russian aircraft from operating in its airspace. Such a decision was confirmed by the EU Commission’s President Ursula von der Leyen.

“We are shutting down the EU airspace for Russians. We are proposing a prohibition on all Russian-owned, Russian registered or Russian-controlled aircraft. These aircraft will no more be able to land in, take off or overfly the territory of the EU. This will apply to any plane owned, chartered or otherwise controlled by a Russian legal or natural person,” said Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission.

This event is yet another hurdle for commercial aviation/ scheduled airlines post COVID but business aviation seems to still be doing well.

Some statistics:

• 2.5 of the global jet delivery is going to Russia;
• 7% of the European biz jet is connected with Russia and Ukraine;
• There are thought to be only around 400 jets with Russian ownership;
• Around 300 of the abovementioned 400 are registered across more than 40 other countries.

Current sanctions allow Russian nationals as passengers on chartered private jets. However, sanctions prohibit Russian nationals and companies from chartering jets.

Anytime you hear the word Russia you should raise a red flag.