Russian Ministry of Defense spokesperson Igor Konashenkov Photo: AFP

Due to Russian airspace closure to carriers from close to 40 countries, flights have to be rerouted or canceled, with the most heavily impacted markets in Europe-Asia and Asia-North America, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced Monday.

Publishing a factsheet and providing guidance on the economic impact of the sanctions and airspace closures, IATA's research team said the most heavily hit are flights between the US and Northeast Asia, and between Northern Europe and most of Asia.

In 2021, RPKs (revenue passenger kilometers) flown between Asia-North America and Asia-Europe accounted for 3 percent and 4.5 percent of global international RPKs respectively, both below their shares prior to the pandemic, due to the slow international recovery in Asia. 

In terms of air cargo, the Europe-Asia market represented 20.6 percent of all international CTKs (cargo ton kilometers) over the past 12 months. 

The Asia-North America trade lanes accounted for 26.7 percent of global international CTKs, and 2.2 percent within Europe (including Russia) over the same period. 

Flight bans and sanctions will cause a loss of capacity, especially affecting Europe-Asia and exacerbating the current capacity crunch. It is, however, possible that airlines in other parts of the world can fill the gap, such as the super-connector airlines in the Middle East.

Jet fuel prices had risen to $141 per barrel on Friday, up 27 percent over March. 

Upward pressures on prices will continue, in particular if more stringent sanctions were to be applied to the Russian energy sector.  All airlines that have some unhedged fuel demand will be directly impacted. 

Xinhua