- It's been a mentally exhausting week of news
since the war broke out.
We have seen airspace closure,
we have seen rising fuel prices,
and all the uncertainties.
In this video, the experts are going to speak out
how all this going to affect aviation.
Russian aeroplanes are currently banned
from accessing European Union, Canadian and the US airspace.
Russia has also put restrictions
on Western country aeroplanes using Russian airspace.
So this has really severely impacted
the overflying Russian airspace between Asia and Europe.
Just have a look at the current Japan airlines flight
from Tokyo to London.
Instead of flying over Russia to the west,
it actually flyed east towards Alaska and Canada,
and then fly over to London.
This has increased the air time to 15 hours.
There are still some airlines using the Russian airspace,
such as the Chinese carriers, the Korean airlines,
and also Air India.
- Today, we have to expect that around
between the Ukraine and Moldova and Europe,
there are 230 daily flights that will be cancelled
between the European Union and Russia,
300 flights per day.
That's the current situation.
That means the closed air space
has a major impact for the operations.
This combined with higher full price,
which expected to rise further,
gives another burden for the airlines to recover
from the COVID pandemic.
Airlines have to detour their flights.
For example, the Helsinki/Tokyo route,
one of the most important flights for Finnair,
is now 2,177
nautical miles longer,
that takes 286 minutes longer flying time.
And Finnair needs now 13 hours flying time
instead nine hours, or nine 30, from Helsinki to Tokyo.
That also means for Frankfurt/Tokyo, another major route,
1,017 nautical miles detouring,
with around 140 minutes extra flying time.
Russia expect to have around 400 million euros per year
in getting fees to overfly the Russian airspace.
So for some flights over Russia to Asia,
an airline will have to pay around 60,000 euros
to fly once over Asia.
So that's why the detours via other nations
like Central Asia can be cheaper in terms of overfly fees,
but you need more gasoline, more and more kerosene.
So that makes it again more expensive.
- Manufacturers like Airbus, Boeing, and Embraer
has all pulled out service from Russia.
Russian airlines are prohibited from buying aeroplanes ,
spare parts, equipment, or services from the manufacturers.
This is a serious blow to all the Russian airlines.
- Russia is less than 5% of total
global commercial air travel,
that only tells part of the story.
Cutting off product support, spare parts,
even navigation charts, means that Russian airlines
are likely to crumble much the same way
that Iran's airlines have been
in the decades that followed 1979.
Most of the roughly 950-airplane fleet is leased,
meaning rented, to Russian airlines.
About 500 of those aircraft are leased
by international lessors,
based in places like Ireland, Singapore, and the US.
And the Western sanctions require them
to curtail their business in Russia by March 28th.
What we're looking at is a likely cannibalization
of the existing fleet using active aircraft
for spare parts going forward.
These aircraft will never fly again outside of Russia.
- One of the main companies which suffering a lot
will be the international aircraft leasing companies.
You have to imagine that Russia have around
49,000 domestic flights last January,
and you have around 60,000 domestic flights during summer.
One of the biggest lessor is AerCap from Ireland, I guess,
they have around 152 aircraft in Russia,
which is about 5% of their entire fleet,
which is leased to Russia.
And this brings now quite a few problems for them
as they cannot expect that leasing rates will be paid,
or aircraft can be flown out from Russia
as all the airspace is closed.
(whooshing)
- There are many advantages using VPN.
Personally, I use Surfshark VPN
to bypass internet censorship,
to find cheaper travel, and to secure my data.
Internet censorship's a huge pain
when you're travelling to another country
where social media like Facebook, YouTube,
and Google mail is blocked.
I use Surfshark VPN to hop to another country
to bypass the internet restrictions.
And even better, I use just one Surfshark VPN subscription
to access multiple Netflix library.
With the help of Surfshark VPN,
I can also connect to another country
to find cheaper air ticket, cheaper hotel,
and cheaper rental car.
Just like many frequent travellers,
we often travel and use public wifi
at a hotel or the airport.
They're not secure.
When I want to send sensitive information,
I use Surfshark VPN to encrypt and secure my data.
Now, here's the best deal for my viewer.
Get Surfshark VPN at surfsharp.com/sam,
enter promote code Sam.
You will get more than 80% off,
and three additional months' subscription for free.
This video is sponsored by Surfshark.
(whooshing)
So you might be wondering if Russian airlines
can't get access to Western aeroplanes ,
can they actually buy Russian aeroplanes ?
Because during the Dubai Air Show,
I actually visited new Russian aeroplanes ,
the Irkut MC-21, and also the Sukhoi super jets.
- Since the early 2000s,
Russia has been trying to establish its own
homegrown aircraft industry once again.
It had been making progress with a Sukhoi super jet,
a regional jet, and its Irkut MC-21.
That's its answer to the Airbus 8320, and Boeing 737 Max.
But both have been slowed by sanctions
that have put in place after the annexation of Crimea
from Ukraine in 2014.
Irkut actually uses a Pratt & Whitney engine,
and it was actually certified with that engine
at the end of 2021, but now that's off the table.
And right now Irkut and United Engine Corporation
is trying to accelerate development.
This was before the war, using a Russian-made engine.
Ultimately the sanctions forced Russians to redesign
major parts of those aeroplanes .
We won't see them ready for service
in any appreciable number in the near future.
And that was even before the war.
- So Russia is a key supplier of titanium,
which is used to build composite fuselage
of more than aeroplanes .
- For the biggest aeroplane manufacturers,
Boeing, Airbus, and Embraer,
each is a huge customer of Russian titanium
that goes into their aeroplanes .
About 35% of Boeings, 65% of Airbus,
and 100% of Embraers comes from Russia.
Titanium is the main ingredient
for large carbon fibre composite aeroplanes
like 8350 and 787.
There haven't been any restrictions put on these exports yet
but it's definitely something to watch.
- So Sabre, the world's largest
airline ticket booking system
has several ties with Russia's flag carrier Aeroflot,
and this severely limits the ability of selling tickets
of Aeroflot on the global distribution system.
I log onto Expertflyer.com,
which is a web-based system
tap into the backend of GDS,
to check on flight sales and availability.
And there's no more flights on Aeroflot displayed there
between Moscow and St. Petersburg.
But I do see all the other Russian private airlines
still are displaying and selling tickets on the GDS.
So with the ongoing war and sanctions,
this has really increased the freight prices.
Russia has an airline called AirBridgeCargo,
which has 17 Boeing 747 and one 777.
And now they're all grounded.
They're unable to do what they usually do,
carrying major export cargo from China to Europe
through their hubs in Russia.
And also don't forget about the oversized cargo markets,
Russia and Ukraine has the largest share
of the oversized cargo transporter,
primarily on the Antonov 124, this aeroplane carries
oversized cargo, like satellite, generator,
and now with the ongoing war,
these aeroplanes are mostly grounded.
That's severely hampering the ability
and the supply of the oversized cargo transporter
in the market right now.
- Well, there have been steadily increasing sanctions
on Russia over the past eight years.
What we've seen in the past week is stronger than
anything the world has ever witnessed in the modern era.
Look, the bottom line is the west is targeting sanctions
of key parts of the Russian economy,
cutting it off from the world,
as its price for invading Ukraine.
Commercial aviation has been a tool for economic warfare
for the past 80 years,
and we're seeing that front and centre today in 2022
as Russian aviation gets reset by 30 years
virtually overnight.
- So is this the slow end of Russian commercial aviation?
Personally, I think with the unprecedented sanction
and restriction on airspace,
this has severely crippled the ability
of the Russian commercial aviation sector.
If the sanctions prolong,
and I feel that the Russian commercial aviation
is heading to a similar path
like those to Iran, or North Korea,
time will tell.
To end today's video,
I would like to pay tribute
to the world's biggest aircraft transporter
the Antonov N225 Mriya,
which has been destroyed unfortunately
by the Russian forces.
I hope peace will prevail soon.
And thanks for watching.
(upbeat music)
(aircraft engine roaring)