From today (Saturday, ed.) KLM will fly again from Schiphol to South Korea (and later China). Last week these flights were temporarily shut down.
The first flight to Seoul since the sanctions against Russia came into effect will resume on Saturday evening. The KL855 departs from Schiphol at 9:10 PM. According to Flightradar24 the flight takes one hour and five minutes longer than before the announced sanctions. Instead of 4:00 PM local time, the KL855 arrives in the South Korean city at 5:05 PM. KLM will use a Boeing 777-200 on this flight. From Monday, there will be daily flights again between Amsterdam and Seoul.
KLM will combine the flight with the Chinese destinations Shanghai and Guangzhou. KLM will pick up the Paralympic athletes on March 10. The company says it is not yet known when the routes to Japan will resume. For example, a KLM flight to Osaka that was scheduled for Saturday afternoon has been cancelled. All these flights will take longer now that it is no longer allowed to fly over Russia. “It is a puzzle to get the plans of the crew together. Where previously three pilots were sufficient, four pilots are now required due to the longer travel time,” said a KLM spokesperson in conversation with the airline. Telegraph.
KLM ticket prices
Russia reacted to European Union sanctions last week. Because the EU came up with a no-fly zone for Russian companies and lease contacts were shut down with a massive downsizing of the Russian fleet, Russia anticipated this by declaring a no-fly zone for 36 countries, including the Netherlands. Although KLM has already decided not anymore To fly to Moscow and Saint Petersburg, the airline has to pass through Russian airspace to reach Asian destinations. That route is the shortest. Now KLM has to pass under Russia. The extra travel time can be up to three hours.
For the time being, KLM does not include the extra costs in the ticket prices. “Of course, detours entail additional costs. How high these are depends on factors such as wind direction and load, there are no fixed numbers to be assigned. For the time being, there is no influence on ticket prices,” the spokesperson continues. The Russian invasion also makes fuel more expensive. Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary said this week that this has no impact on ticket prices and came up with a alternative to become less dependent on Russia.
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