Several airlines have begun looking for creative ways to avoid flying over Russian airspace, redrawing routes reminiscent of the Cold War era.
Finnair, the largest airline in Finland, began seeking alternative routes in early February, about two weeks before the Kremlin barred its aircraft from entering its airspace. Its solution: flying over the North Pole.
“While airspace closures for various reasons are a part of the everyday life of flight planners, this change — closing the entire Russian airspace — was so exceptional, that the system actually needed some manual guidance in the form of alternative waypoints, to get started and create an alternative routing,” said Riku Kohvakka, manager of flight planning at Finnair.
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Shortly after its invasion of Ukraine, Russia announced it would close its airspace to 36 countries in retaliation for several European countries restricting Russian-owned and -operated aircraft from entering their skies. This proved a challenge to airlines such as Finnair that scheduled flights from Europe to Southeast Asia, as Russia stands in the middle.
As a result, the airline was forced to cancel several flights headed to Singapore, South Korea, and Thailand until it could find a solution.
One of its most complicated routes to redraw was its flight from Helsinki to Tokyo. Before Russia closed its airspace, Finnair would schedule its flights to take off from Finland, fly over Russia, enter China over its northern border, and then reenter Russian airspace before crossing the Sea of Japan toward its final destination.
Overall, the trip would take almost nine hours and cover nearly 5,000 miles.
With its new route that utilizes a North Pole path, the airline travels from Finland to Norway, crossing over Svalbard and the North Pole toward Alaska, before heading down across the sea to Japan. Now, the trip takes 13 hours and uses 40% more fuel.
The newly drawn flights are reminiscent of polar routes used throughout the Cold War when commercial aircraft were prohibited from crossing into Soviet or Chinese airspace. Finnair was the first airline to fly nonstop from Europe to Japan via a polar route in 1983, eliminating a technical stop other airlines relied on to complete their journeys.
Aleksi Kuosmanen, a Finnair A350 captain and deputy fleet chief, was one of the four pilots to revive the Cold War-era flight route, following in the footsteps of his father who was part of the Finnair crew that flew over the North Pole the first time.
“Hours and hours of careful planning preceded this flight, to ensure a smooth and safe journey,” Kuosmanen said. “Flying over the North Pole is probably a part of every long-haul pilot’s bucket list, and for me, this flight had an extra personal significance.”
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Despite the added travel time, passengers have reacted positively to the new routes.
“I would say that people were enthusiastic,” Kuosmanen told CNN. “Many were asking at what time we would be going across the pole and if northern lights were expected.”
Because of the new routes, Finnair continued its flights to Tokyo, Shanghai, and other South Asian destinations during the first two weeks of March. The airline announced it would cancel all flights to Russia until the end of May and flights to Osaka, Japan, and Hong Kong until the end of April.
