United Air joins US peers in avoiding Russian airspace

United Airlines Holdings Inc. will stop flying over Russia for its daily flights to India, becoming the last major U.S. passenger carrier to withdraw from the airspace following the invasion of Ukraine.

The airline expects short-term disruptions as it reroutes flights to Mumbai and New Delhi from its hubs in Chicago, Newark and San Francisco, spokeswoman Leslie Scott said Tuesday. United hasn’t decided whether any of the four flights will need to be suspended because of the operational challenges, she said.

Because of range limits for flights returning to the U.S., the two Indian cities were the last destinations for which United was using Russian airspace, the airline said. United had routed other flights around Russia since the Feb. 24 invasion. Scott declined to discuss the rationale for the changes.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration barred U.S. airlines from flying over Belarus, Ukraine and part of western Russia on Feb. 24, but hasn’t issued further restrictions.

American Airlines Group Inc. and Delta Air Lines Inc. have said they stopped flying over Russia on Feb. 23, shifting routes linking U.S. cities to destinations such as Tokyo and Incheon, South Korea.

Chicago-based United was paying Russia less than $4,000 to use its airspace for each India flight, according to a Russian government fee schedule. The International Air Transport Association didn’t respond to a request for comment on which of its members still fly over Russia and how much they paid in 2021.