As relations between Moscow and Washington thaw, Russia is pushing the Trump administration to lift airspace restrictions so that direct air service between the two nations can be restored as early as this summer.
Russia Wants To Restore Direct Air Service To USA
Even ahead of the disastrous Oval Office meeting yesterday between the Trump administration and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Russia and the US have met this week in Istanbul, Turkey. The agenda has been driven by a mutual desire to restore diplomatic missions, but as the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs later commented, the meeting centered “on ways to overcome numerous ‘irritants’ inherited from previous American administrations.”
The ministry further added:
“The need for practical results aimed at creating conditions for improving bilateral relations in the interests of the peoples of our countries was particularly emphasized. In concrete terms, the American side was asked to consider the possibility of restoring direct air traffic.
“The discussions proceeded in a substantive and business-like manner, with both parties agreeing to continue dialogue through this channel.”
Ukraine’s then ally, the USA, joined by the European Union, UK, and Canada, banned Russian aircraft from its airspace after the unilateral invasion of Ukraine by Russia in 2022. Rusisa reciprocated, closing off its airspace to its geopolitical rivals.
Strong sanctions also attempted to curtail Russian carriers from receiving spare parts for their Airbus and Boeing aircraft, though Russia has managed to dodge such sanctions through “neutral” countries like Turkey, India, Saudi Arabia, and even Israel…
Thus far, the US has only said that it held “constructive discussions” with Moscow, but did not address the restoration of air service specifically.
US Carriers Rooting For This
I suspect US carriers, especially United Airlines, are rooting for these airspace restrictions to be lifted.
United used to serve Moscow…my review here…and I don’t think that route will return in the near future. No, direct service between Russia and the USA will continue to be on Aeroflot only.
But opening up Russian airspace would allow United (in particular) as well as Delta Air Lines to restore more service to India and look into other routes. Currently, Indian carriers have a great advantage over US carriers by utilizing Russian airspace in their service to the USA.
And the lack of verified maintenance records during the Ukraine War makes it very dangerous to allow nonstop service to the USA. We’ve heard numerous reprots about how Aeroflot, for example, has been forced to canablize its own A350s for spare parts…you just wonder how well these aircraft have been maintained and setting side geopolitcal concerns, if the US Department of Transportation cares about safety, allwoing such aircraft back into US airspace is problematic.
My hunch is that the talks are more about lifting sanctions over spare parts than about restoring air service: the two go hand-in-hand.
CONCLUSION
Russia wants to restore air service to the USA and with new occupants in the White House, there’s a good chance that the airpsace restrictions each country has imposed on one another could soon be lifted. Even if the airspace restrictions are lifted, allowing Aeroflot planes to serve the USA appears to be a dangerous gamble after cutting off the Russian flag carrier from spare parts for three years.
Who’s going to Moscow this summer?
image: Aeroflot
I wonder how many aircraft Aeroflot flies that are still technically stolen from the leasing company? I recall that being a thing at the start of sanctions. If so, seems like the U.S. will be a more practical location in these companies seizing them.
You are the third BoardingArea blog posting about this. You might want to look at a route map. All previous Aeroflot routes to the US (East Coast cities, LA) go through European airspace – all countries that have banned Russian airplanes… slim chance that Aeroflot will be able to offer service to the US on previous routes…
Could be routed via Turkey, Northern Africa.
Or VVO-LAX.
Canadian airspace is also closed to Russian aircraft and unlikely to open soon.
Erdogan isn’t too happy with Putin nowadays and he’s been voting against Putin as of late.
Israel — in the same boat as North Korea, Belarus, Russia, Hungary and Trumperica — voted in the UN against blaming Russia for the Russian invasion and occupation of Ukraine. Even India, China, Saudi Arabia, and Iran abstained from voting like the Russians wanted. So maybe Aeroflot could partner with ElAl/Israel because the non-US members of NATO on the historical flight paths from SVO to the US aren’t in love with Putin.
This will be huge also for US flights to China and India/Pakistan. Many US routes to China simply can’t operate with any economic viability without overflying Russia, and India flights are forced to take much longer routes and there were reports that PIA was imminently going to be allowed to fly US routes again.
You can go to Moscow now if you go to London and obtain a Russian tourist visa. You will have to pay for everything in cash rubles in Moscow because visa and Mastercard are blocked. You can fly the ME3 to Russia. I think Aeroflot should resume JFk-SVO. That would be a good start. We need a cease fire and that doesn’t work if zalynskyy doesn’t want to end the war and is asking for more aid. The candy store is closed.
No need to go via the Middle East – THY and EgyptAir will happily sell you a through ticket from Europe/America to Russia. Fares are high, but there’s some award availability, at least on the CAI flights, for which you can use *A miles as normal.
The candy store was never opened by anyone for Ukrainians — they have been paying a price in blood and love for country, for democracy against Putinism. And Musk-Trump-Vance and their MAGA media echo chamber are sleazy cheapwads who would sell out even their own mothers, wives and daughters; and that they sell out the US to anti-American Putin and attack our allies is par for the course for such an enemy within.
M-T-V are anti-constitutional traitors.
“Peace for our time” Chamberlain on the Munich Agreement of 1938.
Typical dribble from a Russian hack.
Nice to see that we’re normalizing things with our enemies while those enemies are invading freely elected democracies.
Trump should demand 5 years of free overflight over Russia for US carriers and 2021 rates for 10 years after that. In addition, any US currency generated in the US must stay in the US.
Ofcourse, now that the White House has become a branch of the Kremlin…
Yes, the only passengers on these flights if they were to be restored would be government officials.
Wouldn’t those Russian operated aircraft not be certified/safe to fly to the U.S. ? Who knows what kind of pirated blackmarket components they now contain. They shouldn’t be allowed on U.S. soil or territory ( although maybe an exception can be made to repatriate the ‘stolen’ leased aircraft home, but are they now even worth anything ?