Finland to shut down airspace to Russian planes

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Finland is preparing to close its airspace to Russian air traffic, Minister of Transport and Communications Timo Harakka said in a tweet late on Saturday, making it the latest European country to take this measure after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The moves follow similar closures of airspace of the UK, Poland, Bulgaria, Czech Republic and Romania to Russia's

aircraft. Lithuania and Latvia, have also said they were closing their airspace to Russian airliners, while Germany said it was preparing to do so. read more

Russia's likely countermeasure will heavily hurt Finland's state carrier Finnair , for which a key strategy is to fly from Europe to Asia over Russia.

"If Russia in parellel closes its airspace from Finnish aircrafts, it would have significant impact on Finnair as our Asian traffic would in practice come to a standstill", Finnair spokeswoman told Reuters in an emailed statement on Sunday.

"Going around Russian airspace prolongs flight times so much that it would not be financially possible to operate our Asian flights," she said.