© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Senator Robert Menendez, D-NJ and Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, speaks during a hearing in Washington, U.S., April 26, 2022. Al Drago/Pool via REUTERS/Photo archive
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By David Sheparson
(Reuters) – The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the top Republican on the committee have urged the Biden administration to block Chinese and other non-U.S. airlines from flying over Russia on U.S. routes.
Sen. Robert Menendez, a Democrat, and James Risch, the top Republican on the committee, in a letter seen by Reuters urged the Biden administration to ensure that no commercial airlines flying over Russian territory arrive at or depart from a US airport.
It also encouraged the administration to “strongly and publicly discourage American individuals, citizens, and permanent residents from traveling on flights over Russian territory.”
US airlines and other foreign airlines are prohibited from flying over Russia. Russia banned US airlines from overflights after the US banned flights to Russia in March 2022 following its invasion of Ukraine.
“An additional by-product of the current situation is that it puts US airlines at a competitive disadvantage relative to airlines of other countries that want to do business with Russia,” the senators wrote to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, who was copied to White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
The State Department declined to comment.
US air carriers currently serve Shanghai from the United States via a stopover in Incheon, South Korea, while Chinese carriers serve the United States directly, flying through Russian airspace.
The Chinese embassy in Washington had no immediate comment.
Airlines for America, which represents American Airlines (NASDAQ:), United Airlines, Delta Air Lines (NYSE:) and other carriers, praised the letter, which “underscores our industry’s longstanding concerns regarding Russian overflights, which have put US airlines – passenger and cargo – at a direct competitive disadvantage.”
The group echoed the senators’ call “for the administration to take urgent action to ensure that foreign carriers flying over Russia do not depart from, land in, or transit through United States airports.”
The senators want the Biden administration to ban US government personnel on official travel from taking flights known to use Russian airspace.
“The risk to Americans flying over Russian airspace is real, as evidenced by Russian-backed separatists who shot down a Malaysian Airlines flight, killing all 298 passengers on board, or the Belarusian government, using as a pretext a hoax bomb alert, ordered a Ryanair flight to land over its territory so it could capture and detain a particular passenger,” the senators wrote.
“The Administration’s proactive action now would protect Americans from these significant risks, as well as shut down a source of funding for the Russian government and address a mismatch that puts American businesses at a disadvantage against foreign competition.”
