Several days ago we reported on how Air France had restarted its Tokyo route avoiding Russian airspace.
I can now report that its partner KLM will restart daily service to Seoul from tomorrow.
NL Times reports that KLM will be operating daily from Amsterdam to Seoul via Kazakhstan.
KLM: Flights to resume to Seoul this weekend https://t.co/VGNxtEPh0J
— NL Times (@NL_Times) March 3, 2022
On some days this flight will continue on to Shanghai or Hangzhou.
I did not check the schedules in great detail (owing to lack of time) but when this morning I visited klm.com its Seoul flight tomorrow is displayed.
The outward Seoul flight will take an additional 1.5 hours with the return taking an extra 2 hours 25 minutes.
It therefore means that the Air France / KLM Group will (from tomorrow) be serving more destinations in NE Asia than any other of its European rivals (at the time of writing).
We await developments at British Airways and Lufthansa.
So far BA has been silent, although the CEO of Lufthansa, an airline which must be planning something for its Group, laments the extra costs involved.
In other news today it’s reported that Japan Airlines and Korean Air will not be using Russian airspace (even though they have not been banned).
Today JAL is operating its Tokyo-London flight JL43 via Alaska, Greenland and Iceland.
Comparing the standard routing for JL43 between Tokyo and London to today’s routing. pic.twitter.com/x28WGyOf3o
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) March 4, 2022
This is a mammoth undertaking by JAL and it’s understood the non-stop flight time will be 15 hours and 15 minutes, which is three hours longer than usual.
UPDATES:
Re JAL flight 43
“On Friday evening JL 43 arrived at London Heathrow after a flight lasting 14 hrs 50 mins (scheduled time was 15 hrs 12 mins) non-stop from Tokyo.”
Re: Comment from BA
“We apologise for the inconvenience but this is clearly a matter beyond our control. We will continue to monitor the situation closely.”
