The Russian Roundabout

In response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine many countries around the world (including the EU and the USA) have closed their airspace to Russian aircraft. Russia has responded in turn by introducing tit-for-tat restrictions, closing its airspace to airlines from 36 different countries around the world. 

Enrico Spinielli has published a couple of maps which visualize the disruptions caused to airlines by the introductions of these no-fly zones. How flights between Europe and Eastern Asia got disrupted plots a selection of flight paths from Europe to Japan from before & after the start of the war in Ukraine. On the right-hand map above you can see how flights from Europe to Asia are now having to make big detours in order to avoid flying over Russia, adding 3.5 hours to a flight from London to Tokyo and 1.63 hours to a flight from Frankfurt to Tokyo.The left-hand map shows the flight paths of planes taken by planes flying from Europe to Asia before the start of the war.

Russian planes have also been forced to make changes to their usual flight plans. In Flying to Kaliningrad during the Russian flight ban Spinielli has mapped out the flight paths that Russian planes have been having to make in order to fly to the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad. Since February 27 commercial flights between mainland Russia and Kaliningrad have had to follow the Baltic Sea avoiding Finland, Sweden and the other Baltic states.

In a third installment in his series visualizing the impact of the Ukrainian invasion on commercial airlines Spinielli has also mapped out evidence of GPS jamming around Kaliningrad.