(Source: Flightradar24) Finnair’s flight from Helsinki to Delhi on March 2, which avoided Russian airspace to fly southwards over Eastern Europe, Turkey and the Middle East before entering the Indian subcontinent, took 8 hours 52 minutes - more than three hours longer than it took when the flight followed the route over Russia. (Source: Flightradar24) Air India’s Chicago-Delhi service operated for a flight time of only 13 hours and 30 minutes on March 1. (Source: Flightradar24) The Chicago-Delhi flight operated by United Airlines took only 13 hours and 16 minutes, and covered a visibly shorter distance when it flew through Russian airspace on February 2.

It followed a similar route as the airline’s Newark-Delhi flight. (Source: Flightradar24) A similar extension of flight time was faced by United Airlines’s Chicago-Delhi service that flew for 14 hours and 43 minutes on March 1 to avoid Russian airspace. Similar flight durations were observed for flights prior to the Ukraine crisis as well. (Source: Flightradar24) Air India’s Newark-Delhi service on March 1, which continued its use of Russian airspace even after the crisis began, had a flight duration of 13 hours and 19 minutes. (Source: Flightradar24) The same United Airlines flight from Newark to Delhi, on February 2, had taken only 12 hours and 38 minutes to operate while flying over Russian airspace before entering India. The aircraft flew over the Northern Atlantic Ocean, and flying over Europe and the Middle East before entering the Indian subcontinent. United Airlines flight from Newark to Delhi that avoided its usual route of flying through the Russian airspace took 13 hours and 53 minutes on March 1 to arrive in Delhi.

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