A senior European Commission official has told the Airline Economics Growth Frontiers Dublin conference that "business as usual" with Russia remains a long way off.
"How long sanctions against Russia are going to be applied, it’s very hard to say,” said Henrik Hololei, the director-general of the European Commission’s Directorate for Mobility and Transport.
Although there appears scant prospect of an end to the Russian invasion of Ukraine that prompted the imposition of international economic sanctions, Hololei said any eventual change would have to include Moscow ending the charging of overflight fees to carriers crossing Russian airspace.
“We have had the Siberian overflight payments, which are illegal according to the International Civil Aviation Organisation, but nevertheless have been applied,” Hololei said, speaking in Dublin on January 16.