Ryanair suspends flights to Ukraine following Russian invasion

Ryanair said on Thursday that it has suspended flights to and from Ukraine for at least 14 days after local authorities closed airspace to civilian aircraft overnight as Russia invaded its western neighbour by land, air and sea.

However, the Irish carrier said that it “remains committed” to its routes serving Ukraine and will restore flights as soon as it is safe to do so.

“Due to the closure of Ukrainian airspace overnight, and the apparent invasion by Russian forces, all Ryanair flights to/from Ukraine have been suspended for at least the next 14 days,” Ryanair said in a statement.

The carrier said it was sending e-mail notifications to affected customers on Thursday morning and that it has had to remove flights to and from the country from sale for at least four weeks “until further information becomes available from EU safety agencies”.

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Russian message

Other commercial airlines also suspended Ukrainian services. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) said Russia’s defence ministry had sent Ukraine an urgent message warning of a high risk to flight safety, due to the use of weapons and military equipment from 0045 GMT, and asked Ukraine’s air traffic control to stop flights.

Websites, which before the escalation had shown intelligence-gathering flights over or near Ukraine as the West showcased support by transmitting detectable signals in recent weeks, showed empty space on Thursday as aircraft left and Ukraine was declared a conflict zone.

Early morning airline traffic skirted the whole country in crowded corridors to the north and west.

An El Al flight from Tel Aviv to Toronto made a sudden U-turn out of Ukraine’s airspace around the time of its closure, flight tracking website FlightRadar24 showed. A LOT Polish Airlines flight from Warsaw to Kyiv turned back.

Before Ukraine’s announcement, Britain, Canada, France, Italy and the US told their airlines to avoid certain airspace above eastern Ukraine and Crimea but stopped short of a total ban.

London-listed budget carrier Wizz Air said it was halting operations out of Ukraine in an announcement released after Ukraine shut its airspace. Germany’s Lufthansa and KLM suspended flights days earlier.

Expansion plan

Two Ukrainian airlines said last week they had faced problems securing insurance for some flights, as foreign carriers began avoiding the airspace amid Russia’s military build up on the border.

Ryanair mainly serves airports in the west of Ukraine, but has no aircraft or crew based in the country. However, the carrier said last month it could base up to 20 planes in Ukraine over the next few years if Russia did not invade. It has also been planning to fly 230 flights weekly flights from three Ukrainian airports this summer.

Alexander Paterson, an analyst with UK stockbroking firm Peel Hunt, estimated in a report that some 20 per cent of Ryanair’s revenues come from Central and Eastern Europe, meaning that an escalation in tensions in the region “could be problematic”.

“We sincerely regret and apologies for these unprecedented disruptions and any inconvenience that they will inevitably cause to our Ukrainian customers,” Ryanair said.