Chinese airlines avoid flying over Russian airspace

Russia has banned US and other foreign airlines from flying over its airspace, in response to Washington banning Russian flights over the US in March 2022 following the country's conflict with Ukraine.

FlightAware records show that Chinese flights recently approved by Washington do not fly over Russia, while previously approved US airline flights are still using Russian airspace.

On May 3, the US Department of Transportation (USDOT) said it would allow Chinese airlines to increase their passenger flights to the US to 12 round trips per week, the same number of flights that Beijing has allowed US carriers. Previously, only eight weekly flights were allowed by Chinese airlines.

Still, the 12 weekly flights are just a fraction of the more than 150 round-trip flights each side allowed before restrictions were imposed in early 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mai Anh (according to Reuters)