Belgium Closes Airspace to Russian Airlines

Belgium announced closing its airspace to Russian flights, the country's prime minister revealed on Sunday.

"Belgium has decided to close its airspace to all Russian airlines," Prime Minister Alexander De Croo tweeted. "Our European skies are open skies. They're open for those who connect people, not for those who seek to brutally aggress."

https://twitter.com/alexanderdecroo/status/1497873882522562562

Belgium's step follows the same measures taken by other EU countries Bulgaria, Poland, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Germany, Slovenia, Finland and Denmark after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

In response, Russia also closed its own airspace to flights operated by carriers from EU Baltic countries.

On Friday, an EU official stated that any broad EU ban on Russian flights using its airspace, as well as similar retaliatory action by Russia for its own airspace, would have serious consequences for air travel.

Air travel links between the EU and Asia, particularly China, Japan and South Korea, "would be made very difficult -- not to say impossible -- if one cannot overfly (Russian) national space", the official said.