LWO and IEV are going out pretty full. 211 and 176 respectively on tomorrows departures from LTN.

Lessors to demand that Bees Airline move all (yes, all) its aircraft out of Ukraine
https://www.avianews.com/ukraine/202...t_to_fly_away/

The UK and USA are both shutting down their embassy offices in Kyiv and moving functions to Lviv instead. Joe Biden has stated in a news conference he believes Putin has made a decision to invade Ukraine

While Ryanair and Wizzair have carried on flying (and I admire them for doing so)... I'm wondering now what their insurers are saying to MOL and Váradi...

Lufthansa Group to suspend flights to Kyiv and Odesa
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/19/luft...a-flights.html

Large chunks of Ukrainian airspace are now closed

It seems the invasion is underway. Reports Russian forces are trying to take Kiev Airport.

Ivano-Frankivsk airport took a direct hit.

Twitter

The EU and U.K. need to ban all Russian aircraft from overflying its airspace.

Wizz aircraft and staff stranded in Ukraine
 

WIZZ were crowing about continuing ops into Ukraine only a day or so ago. Maybe unwise with hindsight.https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business...x=1645711437-2

BA and LH to Moscow
 

Surprised / horrified to see BA and LH operated into and thankfully out of Moscow today.
It's a thin line between being brave and stupid.

Why? What missiles do you think are heading for Moscow?

Probably a good idea though for citizens to get in/out before Russia reciprocates airspace bans.

Doesn't have to be missiles for it to be dangerous. Russia’s lack of rule of law means they could easily impound or make life difficult for crew and passengers.

Tomorrow’s BA LHR-Moscow flight has been cancelled.

The UK has more to lose if this course of action is taken and Russian Federation retaliates.

It would almost double the distance between the UK and north Asia (e.g Heathrow-Tokyo/Hong Kong/Shanghai/Seoul etc.) if aircraft were banned from Russian airspace and had to fly via Cairo, Bombay, and Bangkok, as was the case in the "bad old days" before the 1980s. It would add a great deal of fuel expenditure and could mean the end of non-stop flights.

May not happen as Russia earns a lot revenue from these flights. Banning UK flights from Russian airspace would have a far bigger impact than vice versa.

Persistence in the face of reality.

IAG have said they will no longer use Russian airspace.

Twitter

Russia has indeed now banned UK aircraft from its airspace.

Don't you think there was a risk of aircraft and passengers and crew being held? Putin is not the most predictable of leaders. Pleased to see IAG have now decided not to overfly or land. Good to see they took the decision before Putin decided to ban UK overflying.

Russia has called the UK banning Aeroflot "unfriendly". Which beggars belief.

Most of Aeroflots aircraft are registered in Bermuda, (British overseas territory). I’m sure the government could if they wanted to, make things very difficult for Aeroflots operations.

Meanwhile the EU is still welcoming Russian flights