上空飛行再開を許可

Western airlines have been moving into Iranian and Afghan airspace since flight restrictions were introduced in 2022. If Trump manages to end the conflict, they will return to flying over RUSSIA, SCMP writes

The global aviation industry could benefit from Donald Trump's victory in the US presidential election if he can end the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine and the fighting in the Middle East as promised, the South CHINA Morning Post reports, citing experts.

In that case, said Subhas Menon, HEAD of the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines, Western airlines would be able to return to flying over Russian airspace rather than Afghanistan.

"If he actually does what he says, I think it will be positive [for the industry]. Right now, airlines are struggling because of the airspace closures," he said.

According to Menon, after Russia closed its airspace to flights from the EU and CANADA in 2022 in response to similar actions by these countries, many Western airlines were forced to change routes and began flying over Iran. After the recent escalation of tensions between Tehran and Israel, they moved to the airspace of Afghanistan (while The Wall Street Journal noted that civilian aircraft continued to fly over the war zone in the Middle East even after a sharp increase in missile launches in the region). This complicates the work of carriers and increases their costs, the head of the association said.

Hong Kong's flag carrier Cathay Pacific Airways diverted flights out of Russian airspace from March to November 2022, but later resumed flights over the country to save time and reduce fuel costs. Hong Kong Airport said flight restrictions over Russia "continue to be a major challenge" and prevented it from returning to pre-COVID -19 capacity .

Dr Low Chung-Kwok of the China Aviation Policy and Research Centre said the end of the Russia-Ukraine conflict "will be one of the factors" airlines will consider when resuming flights to Hong Kong.

Although some carriers have reduced the number of flights to Hong Kong, its airport retained its leadership in the world ranking of the top ten airports by cargo volume in 2023: according to Airports Council International, it handled 4.3 million tonnes of cargo (+3.3%) in a year.

Read RBC on TELEGRAM .