Rosaviatsiya Russia's Federal Agency for Air Transport confirmed in a statement today that it was banning UK registered flights, aircraft owned, leased or operated by a person associated with the United Kingdom, from even crossing over its airspace as a direct response to the decision by the UK government yesterday to ban Aeroflot and other Russian airlines from British airspace.
Ben Wallace, the UK's Defence Secretary said: "I think that's their retaliation for us yesterday banning Aeroflot from using and landing in the United Kingdom. That's their tit for tat response."
British Airways has already axed its Moscow route, a spokesperson for the airline said "We have suspended our flights to Moscow and also the use of Russian airspace, following the confirmation of Russian government restrictions. We apologise for the inconvenience but this is clearly a matter beyond our control." IAG CEO Luis Gallego said "Following the UK government decision to ban Aeroflot from landing in the UK, we have taken the decision not use Russian airspace for overflights."
Other airlines have also taken action to avoid Russian airspace, a Virgin Atlantic spokesperson "On Thursday evening, we took the decision to start avoiding Russian airspace and our flight paths will continue to be adjusted for some Virgin Atlantic passenger services between the UK, Pakistan and India,"
Turkish Airlines has cancelled its flights to Russia until Monday and are said to be considering a longer suspension depending on the situation.
The ongoing crisis is also affecting other modes of transport, Viking Cruises announced today that it was cancelling all of its Kiev, Black Sea & Bucharest cruises this year. Other cruise firms are altering routes of some cruises and say they are monitoring the situation carefully.
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