series: impact of the ukraine invasion on commercial aviation

# How flights between Europe and Eastern Asia got disrupted 1. **[How flights between Europe and Eastern Asia got disrupted](https://observablehq.com/@espinielli/war-in-ukraine-airspace-blockade)** 2. [Flying to Kaliningrad during the Russian flight ban](https://observablehq.com/@xoolive/flying-to-kaliningrad) 3. [GPS jamming around Kaliningrad](https://observablehq.com/@xoolive/gps-jamming) *Trajectories are extracted from [Flightradar24](https://www.flightradar24.com/).* Following the ban on Russian aircraft above many European countries, Russia retaliated by banning European aircraft over their airspace. European airlines interrupted their services shortly, then resumed it by choosing the long route to connect Japan, Korea and China, adding at least 3 hours of flight time. The following map displays a selection of flights departing from Europe to Japan _**before**_ (2022-02-14, on the left) and _**after**_ (2022-03-07, on the right) the start of the war in Ukraine and the airspace blockade between Europe and Russia. From London Heathrow, United Kingdom, to Tokyo Haneda, Japan, for example, flight JL44 (**${html`blue`}** trajectory) now flies over Alaska, USA, adding **3.5 hours** more than before the airspace blockade. Given a fuel consumption of 7500 kg/hour (16535 lbs/hour) for a [Boeing 777 346ER](https://oneworldvirtual.org/fleet/models/japan-airlines-boeing-777-346-er) this diversion adds **26250 kg** (57900 lb) of fuel consumption. Flight NH204 (**${html`yellow`}** trajectory) from Frankfurt, Germany, to Tokyo Haneda, Japan, flies a more southernly route which adds **1.63 hours** to the travel time. This costs an additional **9130 kg** (20120 lb) of fuel given a value of 5600 kg/hour (12346 lbs/hour) as the consumption for a [Boeing 787-9](https://oneworldvirtual.org/fleet/models/japan-airlines-boeing-787-9-dreamliner).