Creative routings to avoid Russian and EU airspace closures are adding up to 4 hours of extra flight time on some plane journeys across the globe

• Russia and the EU have restricted their airspace following the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
• Many carriers are still flying routes that formerly crossed Russia or the EU, but are now detouring to avoid closures.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has forced airlines to come up with creative routing to avoid closed airspace.

On February 27, the European Union banned Russian aircraft from flying in its airspace to punish President Vladimir Putin for invading Ukraine. Shortly after, Russia retaliated with its own airspace restrictions, leaving carriers without direct paths between several city pairs.

In response to the closures, companies have had to decide whether to suspend certain routes or take long detours around restricted airspace, with many airlines choosing the latter.

In a February 27 flight from Belgrade, Serbia, to Moscow, Russian flag carrier Aeroflot added three hours of flight time because it could not fly directly to the city via EU airspace.

Meanwhile, British Airways started rerouting its service between London and New Delhi to avoid Russia, adding an hour of flight time.

The detours are costly for airlines. New York-based aviation consultant Robert Mann told ABC News that the extra fuel and labor to operate the longer routes could cost carriers up to $12,000 extra per hour.

Despite the additional costs, airlines continue to come up with creative routings, even if it means pushing aircraft and pilots to nearly 15 hours of nonstop flight time.

On March 4, a Japan Airlines Boeing 777-300ER spent nearly three extra hours in the air flying eastbound from Tokyo to London. Normally, the carrier flies westbound across Russia, but airspace closures forced it to journey across the Pacific and over the Arctic to get to England.

JAP's average flight time between the two cities was 12 hours and 12 minutes before the invasion of Ukraine, but last Friday's flight time reached 14 hours and 50 minutes, according to Flightradar24 data.

Finland flag carrier Finnair is also taking a longer flight path to connect Asia and Europe after temporarily suspending those flights. Flightaware data shows the carrier flew an Arctic detour that put the total flight time at 12 hours and 55 minutes, which is about four hours longer than its normal nine-hour journey.

In another interesting routing, Russian charter carrier Azur Air stopped in Morocco on its trek to Cancun, Mexico on March 8. The flight path takes the jet south of EU airspace and through Turkey to reach Agadir, Morocco. From there, the plane continues on across the Atlantic to Mexico.

Azur's normal route from Moscow to Cancun crosses the EU and takes about 13 hours, according to Fightradar24, but Wednesday's total detour time took a whopping 22 hours.

—Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) March 8, 2022

Azur's flight comes after Russia's aviation regulator, Rosaviatsiya, banned international flights to keep aircraft lessors from detaining planes. However, the company said on its website that it will continue flights for Russians abroad in several countries, including Mexico.