The proposal, developed by the US Department of Transportation, would prevent Chinese airlines flying into the country from flying through Russian airspace.
According to New York Times sources, the gist of the draft is that China Airlines flights to and from the United States will not be allowed to fly through Russian airspace.
Some politicians, as well as the interests of the US carrier, American Airlines 4, are lobbying to prevent foreign airlines from using Russian airspace for their flights to the United States.
According to them, it gives competitors an unfair advantage over them, plus a possible stopover in Russia would pose a security risk for American passengers on board.
As is known, the airlines of the United States, the European Union and several allied countries have not been able to use Russian airspace since March 2022, even for overflights, as part of the sanctions imposed on Russia for the attack on Ukraine and in accordance with the Russian response to it.
Like many European airlines, this presents a huge challenge for US carriers, because their flights to the Far East or India are forced to fly much longer routes, which can extend the usual flight time by more than an hour.
For this reason, some flights are forced to operate with limited seat and/or belly cargo capacity, and even with mediocre technical landings in certain weather conditions (with strong headwinds).
All of this dramatically increases fuel consumption, costs and emissions, and the longer flight time does not benefit passengers either, all of which has put Western airlines at a disadvantage compared to their competitors who do not participate in the sanctions.
The Biden administration is reportedly currently assessing the potential diplomatic ramifications of imposing the ban, which is expected to spark strong protests from China in an already tense geopolitical situation.
So far, there is no information on whether the EU is planning a similar move, but as we wrote, for example, Finnair had to significantly reorganize its operations and business model due to the sanctions ban. If the European Union were to make a similar move, it could also affect the passenger and cargo flight path between China and Budapest.
