CAL flight travels through Russian airspace to reach Rome

2026-10-26

Four years ago, when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, most airlines around the world, including Taiwanese ones, rerouted their flights to avoid flying over Russia. That meant flights between Asia and Europe had to take the long way round via South Asia, Central Asia or the Middle East. But on Sunday evening, a flight operated by Taiwan’s China Airlines was spotted flying over Russia, heading to Rome. The incident has sparked much debate about the route’s safety, and whether the northern flight routes are back on the table. Let’s hear more.

Shih Ching-sheng
Pilot
The main reason is that the international political situation is changing. If US planes were to start flying over Russia, it wouldn’t be a problem for us to do the same. Some of the countries on the southern routes are hostile to us, so traffic control handovers have to be done very carefully. That puts a heavy workload on air traffic controllers too. Flying north is much easier. From what I know, a notice was only posted a few days ago allowing the Airlines to follow a route that curves around northeast China, without entering China’s airspace, before turning left towards Russia and continuing on through Russian airspace.

Lu Yen-liang
Chaoyang University of Technology
When it comes to flight routes, you can’t just copy and paste the same path for every flight. You have to consider all sorts of conditions, such as the weather and wind. Taking the northern route does come with a significant cost advantage.

The northern route shaves off 30 minutes to 1 hour to the total flight duration, which helps airlines save on fuel and labor costs. But it also comes with hefty air traffic control fees that must be paid to Russia. Airlines are weighing which option is the most cost-effective, while for passengers, safety is the top priority.

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#russia #taiwan #flight #airradar #rome

俄烏戰爭後首見華航睽違4年"跨俄國領空"飛羅馬

2026-10-26

四年前，俄烏戰爭爆發，幾家國籍航空為了安全考量，陸續避開俄羅斯領空改走南方航路，得繞經南亞、中亞、或中東方向，才能飛往歐洲。不過，週日凌晨，華航一架從桃園飛往義大利羅馬的班機，罕見改走北方航路，引起熱議。隨著戰爭漸漸有曙光，各家航空公司多了北方航路選擇

[[機師史慶生]]
“最主要其實它背後的原因，還是國際的政治局勢改變。如果說在美國的飛機，他們也開始飛俄羅斯的話，那我們飛就比較沒問題，（往南飛部分國家）自己本身算是敵對，所以在航管交接上我們必須處理，這對我們航管通話的負擔很大，如果說往北走就相對很單純。據我所知是最近這幾天才發布的通知，航空公司可以用最新飛行計劃，改由先繞到這個中國大陸的東北方，不會進中國大陸的領空，然後再往左邊切，再往這個俄羅斯，俄羅斯領空飛過去。”

[[朝陽科大飛航系主任盧衍良]]
“其實每一個航班，對航空公司來講都不是說複製貼上，這些條件再加上，整個周遭環境的氣象影響，風的影響，如果我今天走北邊的航線，確實在整個成本上來講的話，有比較大的優勢。”

台灣往北飛歐洲，整個航程省半小時至一小時，省下燃油、人力成本的同時，得支付俄國高額的航管費，歐洲航線可能迎來新變化，怎樣飛CP值最高？航空公司有盤算，對旅客而言，飛安還是首要。

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