KLM with detour back to Korea and China | Financial

Last weekend, the airline canceled routes to Asia, a few days after the war in Ukraine started. Due to the sanctions against Russia, KLM cannot use Russian airspace, which means that a plane is on the road one and a half times as long.

For a destination like Beijing, that increases to 4000 kilometers extra and costs between one and a half and almost three hours of extra travel time. Flights to Asia will pass under Russia from Saturday, over Kazakhstan to China and beyond.

KLM will fly to Korea again on Saturday, and again daily from Monday. Once a week, the flight is combined with Shanghai in China, and twice a week the aircraft continues to Gangzhou. On March 10, KLM will fly once to Beijing to pick up the Paralympic athletes. It is not yet clear when Japan will restart.

Changing a flight plan is complex, because separate permits have to be arranged. It takes time. “It is a puzzle to get the plans of the crew together. Where previously three pilots were sufficient, four pilots now have to accompany them because of the longer travel time,” said a spokeswoman for KLM.

The arrival and departure times also change due to the detour, which means that airports are sometimes no longer open. The costs per flight also increase enormously, as a result of the consumption of more fuel. “Of course, detours entail additional costs. How high these are depends on factors such as wind direction and load, there are no fixed numbers to be assigned. For the time being, there is no influence on the ticket prices, according to KLM.

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