In more and more European countries, planes operated by Russian airlines are unwelcome and the number of countries banning the use of their airspace is increasing every day. This means that Aeroflot, among other things, has to fly absurd detours in order to be able to head for Vienna, for example.

Austria had not yet decided on Saturday whether to ban aircraft related to the Russian Federation from the airspace. This led to considerable criticism from the opposition. However, since Russia reacts promptly to every ban and also bans planes and airlines, people were very cautious. This is due to the fact that Austrian business aviation maintains business relationships with Russian customers on a large scale. Many private jets are owned by rich Russians.

Airlines usually try to fly as straight as the crow flies between two destinations. If possible, fly straight. Sometimes this is not possible due to ATC instructions, but sometimes absurd detours are usually only made for safety reasons because you don't want to use a certain airspace.

An exemplary example from Saturday shows that Aeroflot had to fly a detour for flight SU 2352 from Moscow-SVO to Vienna, which under normal circumstances seems absurd. For example, you are not allowed to use the airspace of Poland and numerous other countries. This meant that the Boeing 738-800 with the registration VQ-BWA had to fly to Vienna via Latvia, then the Baltic Sea, via Germany and Austria. The detour had to be taken on the return flight. This significantly increased flight times.

Similar cases were numerous throughout the weekend across Europe. It is not foreseeable how long Aeroflot and other Russian airlines will be allowed to use the airspace outside of Russia - apart from "friendly countries". More and more states are banning airlines and aircraft associated with the Russian Federation and are promptly being banned in reverse.