Japan’s NCA suspends flights to Europe amid airspace bans

NCA – Nippon Cargo Airlines (KZ, Tokyo Narita) extended on March 7 a suspension of its flights between Asia and Europe for another week as it continued to try to find routes that avoid Russian airspace, it outlined in a statement that listed the flights to be affected up to March 13.

The freighter operator, a subsidiary of Japanese shipping giant Nippon Yusen, initially announced on March 3 that it had called a halt to its routes to Europe effective from the following day, namely between Tokyo Narita and both Amsterdam Schiphol and Milan Malpensa, “in view of the current situation in Russia and Ukraine. We are aiming to resume our European flights as soon as possible.”

It has now repeated that message and listed the additional suspended flights as:

March 9, KZ008 from Narita to Amsterdam
March 10, KZ049 from Amsterdam to Narita via Milan
March 12, KZ008 from Narita to Amsterdam
March 12, KZ049 from Amsterdam to Narita via Milan
March 13, KZ018 from Narita to Milan via Amsterdam
March 13, KZ017 from Milan to Narita
Cargo airlines have warned that the airspace bans that came in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will result in higher supply-chain costs due to extended transit times and reduced capacity between Asia and Europe.

NCA’s ten-strong fleet currently includes eight B747-8(F)s and two B747-400(FSCD)s wet-leased in from Atlas Air (5Y, New York JFK), the ch-aviation fleets advanced module shows. According to the ch-aviation capacities module, the flights to Amsterdam and Milan are its only two regular routes to Europe. Its eleven others carry cargo between Tokyo and the United States and other destinations in Asia.