Russia has responded to a UK ban on its scheduled airlines by banning British airlines from landing in Russia or crossing its airspace.

The move will force the cancellation of British Airways’ three-times-weekly flights to Moscow and will impact tour programmes to Russia as there are now no direct non-stop flights between the two countries.

It is also likely to lead to longer flight times as flights must be re-routed to avoid Russia.

Airlines are also obliged to avoid Ukraine airspace, which is closed, as you can see in the screenshot above from Flightradar24, a website that tracks flights worldwide. 

In a statement this morning, BA said: “We have suspended our flights to Moscow and also the use of Russian airspace, following the confirmation of Russian Government restrictions.

“We apologise for the inconvenience but this is clearly a matter beyond our control. We are notifying customers on cancelled services and are offering a full refund.

“We will continue to monitor the situation closely.”

It confirmed that the re-routing of some services might lead to longer flight times and apologised to customers for the inconvenience.

Travel Gossip understands BA has been avoiding flying over Ukraine for several years, following the downing of a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet in 2014.