Last weekend, the airline canceled flights to Asia, a few days after the start of the war in Ukraine. Due to sanctions against Russia, KLM cannot use Russian airspace, which means that the plane takes one and a half times to travel.

For a destination like Beijing, this increases to an additional 4,000 km and costs approximately one and a half to three hours of additional travel time. Flights to Asia will pass under the leadership of Russia from Saturday, and from over Kazakhstan to China and beyond.

KLM will fly to Korea again on Saturday, and again daily from Monday. The flight is combined once a week with Shanghai in China, and twice a week the plane continues with a flight to Gangzhou. On March 10, KLM will fly once to Beijing to pick up the Paralympic athletes. It is not yet clear when Japan will resume.

Changing the itinerary is complicated, because separate permits must be arranged. take time. “It’s a mystery putting the crew’s plans together. A KLM spokeswoman said that where three pilots were previously enough, four were needed due to the long travel time.”

Arrival and departure times also change due to detours, which means that sometimes airports are no longer open. The cost of the trip also increases significantly due to the consumption of more fuel. “Of course, detours incur additional costs. How high these are depends on factors such as wind direction and load, there are no fixed numbers to allocate. Currently, there is no impact on ticket prices, according to KLM.