Russia sanctions: KLM also cancels flights between Amsterdam and China, Japan, Korea

Dutch airline KLM announced on Sunday it will cancel flights to China, Japan and South Korea through Thursday at the earliest, a spokesperson told NL Times. The airline will cancel two departures from Amsterdam per day, destined for Beijing, Osaka, Seoul, Shanghai, and Tokyo.

Additionally, several flights leaving those cities to return to the Netherlands were also cancelled, including a flight from Tokyo on Sunday, and flights to Seoul and Tokyo next weekend. Twenty flights were cancelled in total thus far, according to information provided by the spokesperson and the airline’s flight status website.

A day earlier, the airline said it would not continue flying over Russian airspace, as sanctions imposed on Russia meant the airline could not bring spare parts into the country even for its own use. As a result, 19 flights to Russian destinations were cancelled.

Additionally, the Netherlands banned all Russian aircraft from using Dutch airspace. Russia has retaliated in kind against many of those countries, which could make it impossible for KLM to fly over Russia.

So far, KLM has not found an adequate solution to flying around Russia to get to the three Asian countries. The airline is considering several options including flying over the Middle East, but no decisions have been made as of Sunday, the spokesperson said.