Photo/Illutration An international flight arrives at Narita Airport. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

At least 23 flights between Japan and Europe have been canceled because of Russian retaliatory measures regarding use of airspaces.

Transport ministry officials said the canceled flights until March 6 involve four European carriers—Finnair, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Lufthansa of Germany and Air France.

The European Union shut its airspace to Russian aircraft over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia retaliated by banning European airlines from flying over its airspace.

Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways have so far not been affected by Russia’s ban, although most of their flights to and from Europe fly over Russian airspace.

But JAL officials have said the one weekly roundtrip flight between Haneda Airport in Tokyo and Moscow between March 3 and 5 would be canceled. The flights between Feb. 24 and 26 were also scrapped.

At his March 1 news conference, transport minister Tetsuo Saito said information would be shared with airline companies that may have to seek refueling points because of the longer routes they will have to take around Russian airspace.

Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi was asked at his March 1 news conference if Japan would follow the EU example and consider barring Russian aircraft from Japanese airspace.

He said not only were there geographical differences between Japan and the EU but also the need to consider the effects on distribution of products.

A high-ranking Foreign Ministry official said a ban on Russian airlines from flying over Japanese airspace was not a realistic option.

However, another ministry official said any measure that did not impose pain on Russia would be meaningless.

(This article was written by Shinya Matsumoto, Shinya Takagi and Yuichi Nobira.)

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