United Airlines suspends San Francisco– Delhi, Newark–Mumbai operations temporarily as it stops using Russian airspace

United Airlines, which is one of the three airlines operating on the India-USA corridor, said on Wednesday that it will temporarily stop using the Russian airspace for overflying to its destinations.

The decision comes after the US announced a ban on Russian aircraft for using its territory amid the Ukraine invasion.

In a message to employees on Tuesday that was viewed by TPG and confirmed by an airline spokesperson, the carrier made clear that it was their decision to stop using the airspace — and not Russia’s.

“United has decided to temporarily suspend transiting Russian airspace to operate our flights to and from BOM (Mumbai) and DEL (Delhi) India,” the message said.

American Airlines has avoided Russian airspace for flights between Delhi and New York by flying south of Russia.

United currently flies to New Delhi from its hubs in Newark (EWR), San Francisco (SFO) and Chicago O’Hare (ORD) as well as Mumbai from Newark. As a result of the longer routes made necessary due to the airline’s avoidance of Russian airspace, United said it is suspending its SFO-DEL and EWR-BOM “for the next few days.”

Russia's state aviation agency on earlier this week announced a ban on airlines from 36 countries in retaliation to similar restrictions imposed by the US and its Nato allies on Russian airlines.

Earlier, on Sunday, European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen had announced the 27-nation bloc's decision to close their airspace to Russian airlines.

(with sources inputs)