US considering barring Chinese airlines using Russian airspace amid Ukraine war

The Transportation Department of the United States of America is considering imposing a ban on Chinese airlines which use of Russian airspace. On Friday, three officials from the Biden administration told The New York Times that the US is eying to impose a ban on Chinese airlines and other competitors who are using Russian airspace to fly passengers to the United States. The decision came in the midst of the raging Russia-Ukraine war. After the war broke out in February last year, several allies of the Ukrainian bloc decided to stop using Russian airspace in fear for the safety of the passengers. Meanwhile, China and the US have strained relationships over wide-ranging issues. 

Last Monday, a proposal was submitted to the national security team about pushing an order obliging China to follow the same restrictions followed by US airlines and others. After the catastrophic war broke out, countries like the United States, the UK, Canada, etc not only decided to fly over Russian airspace, but they also banned Russian aircraft from flying over their airspace. However, many countries are still using Russian airspace for convenient travel. According to The New York Times, these restrictions have impacted the business of American airlines to a great extent. “Foreign airlines using Russian airspace on flights to and from the U.S. are gaining a significant competitive advantage over U.S. carriers in major markets, including China and India,” a US official asserted last month. “This situation is direct to the benefit of foreign airlines and at the expense of the United States as a whole, with fewer connections to key markets, fewer high-paying airline jobs, and a dent in the overall economy,” they added. 

US air carriers face a $2 Billion loss

According to The New York Times, a spokeswoman from the trade group Airlines for America, asserted that the group wants the Biden administration “to take action to ensure that foreign carriers overflying Russia do not depart, land or transit through US airports”. As per the report by the American news outlet, due to these restrictions, the US carriers as a collective lost $2 billion per year in market share. The industry group believes airlines such as China Eastern, Emirates, and Air India have enjoyed the recent boom in their business since their home countries do not have such restrictions.

The US airlines, on the other hand, have to run long-haul flights and keep seats empty. The seats are kept empty to make the plane light enough to avoid frequent refueling. Hence all these measures are impacting the airlines' business to a great extent. Even if US airlines want to fly over Russian airspace they can't since last March Moscow closed its airspace to the US airlines in reciprocation to Washington’s sanctions. Hence, the geopolitical dynamics between US and Russia have affected the business of US airlines to a great extent.