Lufthansa Group airlines suspend Kyiv and Odesa flights

All Lufthansa Group carriers have suspended scheduled services to Ukraine except for flights to Lviv in the west of the country as concerns over a potential further Russian invasion mount.

The German holding said that all of its flights to Kyiv Boryspil and Odesa had been suspended as of February 21, 2022.

Flightradar24 ADS-B data shows that Lufthansa operated its last flights from Frankfurt Int’l and Munich to Kyiv Boryspil on Sunday, February 20. Austrian Airlines has also suspended its services from Vienna to Kyiv Boryspil and Odesa, while Swiss has paused flights from Zurich to Kyiv. The remaining group carriers (Eurowings and Brussels Airlines) do not serve Ukraine.

Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines continue to serve Lviv, which is located the furthest from the frontline between Ukraine and Russia-controlled separatist territories in the east. No other group carrier flies to the city. Multiple embassies, including the United States and the United Kingdom, have relocated most of their staff from Kyiv to Lviv as well.

Previously, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines suspended its services from Amsterdam Schiphol to Kyiv. Some lessors and insurers have ordered their Ukrainian airline customers to repark their aircraft outside of the country, forcing Ukraine International Airlines and SkyUp Airlines to curtail their operations. Bees Airline is relying on ad-hoc capacity leases to maintain the core of its network after all four of its B737-800s were ferried to Montpellier for storage.

The crisis precipitated by Russia’s ongoing military buildup along the border of Ukraine and in Belarus, which borders Ukraine to the north. On February 21, Russia recognised the independence of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, two Russia-sponsored separatist entities that have controlled part of eastern Ukraine since 2014. The recognition prompted a subsequent signing of a friendship treaty which will see Russian troops deployed within the two de facto states.