Polar express: How airlines are plotting a new route to Asia

The issue is finest illustrated by Finnair’s flight from Helsinki to Tokyo. Earlier than the invasion of Ukraine, planes from Finland’s nationwide provider would take off and rapidly veer into the airspace of neighboring Russia, crossing it for over 3,000 miles.

They might then enter China close to its northern border with Mongolia, fly in its airspace for about 1,000 miles, earlier than getting into Russia once more simply north of Vladivostok.

Lastly, they’d cross the Sea of Japan and switch south in direction of Narita Airport. The journey would take just below 9 hours on common and canopy almost 5,000 miles.

The final such flight departed on February 26. The following day, Russia barred Finland from utilizing its airspace, forcing the short-term cancellation of most of Finnair’s Asian locations, together with South Korea, Singapore and Thailand.

By that time, nonetheless, the airline’s route planners had lengthy been at work to discover a answer. “We made the primary very tough calculation about two weeks earlier than the precise closure of the airspace,” says Riku Kohvakka, supervisor of flight planning at Finnair.

The answer was to fly over the North Pole. As a substitute of heading southeast into Russia, planes would now depart Helsinki and go straight north, heading for the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, earlier than crossing over the pole and Alaska.

Then they’d veer in direction of Japan flying over the Pacific, rigorously skirting Russian airspace. That is not as easy as earlier than: The journey now takes over 13 hours, covers roughly 8,000 miles, and makes use of 40% extra gasoline.

Security first

Finnair’s Flight AY73 routes earlier than and after the closure of Russian airspace.

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Finnair began flying through the polar path to Japan on March 9. So, how does an airline utterly redesign one among its longest flights in simply over every week?

“All main airways have their very own computerized flight planning system, which they use to plan routes and alter them,” explains Kohvakka. Within the software program, the airspace of particular nations might be crossed out and waypoints might be manually inserted to assist it calculate different routes.

The following step is a brand new operational flight plan, which tells the crew what the deliberate route is, how a lot gasoline they want, how a lot the aircraft can weigh and so forth.

“From expertise, we knew we had two prospects: one through the north, and one through the south,” says Kohvakka.

Along with the polar route, Finnair may attain Japan by flying south of Russia — over the Baltics, Poland, Slovak Republic, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan to China, Korea after which to Japan. It is longer, but when wind circumstances are significantly favorable it may be used, leading to an analogous flight time.

Then, gasoline consumption information, along with navigational charges, is used to estimate the price for the flight.

“After that, we have to test what sort of terrain we’re flying over. For instance, to see if the elevation at any level of the route requires particular planning, in case we lose an engine or pressurization — one thing that’s at all times thought-about when making ready a flight,” Kohvakka says.

As soon as the brand new route is accepted, the main focus shifts to plane gear and the related processes and laws.

Amongst them is one known as ETOPS (“Prolonged-range Twin-engine Operational Efficiency Requirements”), which dates again to the Fifties, when plane engines have been much less reliable and extra vulnerable to failing. ETOPS is a certification offered to plane that decided how far a aircraft with solely two engines may fly from the closest airport, in case it wanted an emergency touchdown on account of engine failure. “We have to have an appropriate airport the place we are able to divert to inside a sure time restrict,” says Kohvakka.

The regulation was initially set to 60 minutes, however as airplanes grew extra reliable, it was steadily prolonged. Only a few weeks in the past, Finnair was working below the broadly adopted ETOPS 180 rule, which meant that its twin-engine plane may fly as much as three hours away from the closest airport at any time.

The brand new Arctic route, nonetheless, flies over very distant areas, the place airports are few and much between. Consequently, the airline needed to apply for an extension of that protocol to 300 minutes, which means the Airbus A350-900s it makes use of to fly to Japan can now stray so far as 5 hours away from the closest airport, whereas nonetheless assembly all worldwide laws and security protocols.

Chilly Struggle route

Japan Airways’ London to Tokyo service earlier than and after the beginning of the battle.

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Airways routinely cope with closure of airspace, for instance throughout spacecraft launches and army drills, and prior conflicts have curtailed or halted flight over Afghanistan, Syria, and Pakistan. A closure of this magnitude, nonetheless, has not occurred since Chilly Struggle instances.

As a result of overflight rights are negotiated between nations reasonably than particular person airways, Russia and Finland secured an settlement solely in 1994, two years after the Soviet Union disintegrated.

Beforehand, Finnair, like most different European airways, didn’t fly over the Soviet Union in any respect. When it started operations to Tokyo in 1983, it additionally flew throughout the North Pole and Alaska.

“So this route is just not completely new to us,” says Kohvakka. Finnair was the primary airline to fly the route nonstop, utilizing DC-10 plane, whereas most others on the time had a refueling cease in Anchorage.

The brand new route will increase gasoline consumption by a whopping 20 tons, making the flights environmentally and financially difficult. For that cause Finnair is prioritizing cargo, the place demand is stronger, and limiting passenger capability to simply 50 seats (the Airbus A350-900s used on the flights may carry as much as 330 individuals).

“The additional journey size will make fewer flights economically viable,” says Jonas Murby, an aviation analyst at Aerodynamic Advisory. “They develop into very depending on a excessive mixture of premium passengers and high-yield cargo; this in an atmosphere the place total demand for journey alongside these routes remains to be comparatively low. I doubt this shall be a broadly adopted technique.”

Japan Airways is to date the one different airline utilizing the polar route for its flights between Europe and Japan. The London to Tokyo service now flies over Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Iceland, which has elevated the typical flight time from simply over 12 hours to about 14 hours and half-hour, in line with Flightradar24.

Northern lights

The A350 is claimed to be significantly resilient to chilly temperatures.

Finnair

An additional 4 hours of flight time additionally has an influence on passengers and crew, additional growing prices.

“Often we fly to Japan with a crew of three pilots,” explains Aleksi Kuosmanen, deputy fleet chief pilot at Finnair, who can also be a captain on the brand new flights. “Now we function it with 4 pilots. We’ve got a particular flight crew bunk the place we are able to sleep and have a relaxation, and we now have additionally elevated the variety of meals.”

Passengers have reacted cheerfully to the brand new route, in line with Kuosmanen.

“I’d say that folks have been enthusiastic,” he stated. “Many have been asking at what time we’d be going throughout the pole and if northern lights have been anticipated.”

Finnair is giving out “diplomas” and stickers to certify passengers have flown over the North Pole.

Finnair

There’s additionally a bonus to having a 300-seater capped at simply 50 passengers: “I had a stroll by means of the cabin through the evening and… to illustrate, that they had house.”

Finnair can also be giving out stickers and “diplomas” that certify to passengers that they’ve flown over the North Pole.

Technically, the polar route does not pose any additional security dangers.

“Chilly climate might be the very first thing that involves thoughts, and it is true that there are areas with chilly air plenty at excessive altitude, however we’re pretty used to this after we fly northern routes to Tokyo within the Russian airspace anyway,” says Kuosmanen.

One situation could possibly be that the gasoline temperature turns into too low, however the A350 is especially resilient in opposition to chilly air, Kuosmanen says, which makes it superb for the route.

There are different minor quibbles. For instance, satellite tv for pc voice communications do not cowl the entire Arctic area, so crews need to depend on HF radio, a know-how that’s virtually 100 years previous.

Along with that, there are areas with robust magnetic radiation to be thought-about through the flight.

“We’ve got previous magnetic compass within the plane, along with a number of trendy navigational aids, and it went slightly bit haywire whereas we have been flying over the magnetic North Pole,” says Kuosmanen. (This causes no hurt to the plane in any respect).

Total, from a pilot standpoint, the polar route makes issues extra fascinating, however does not basically alter the job.

“The polar space might be the place each pilot who flies long-haul desires to function,” says Kuosmanen. “However as soon as one is nicely ready and nicely briefed, it is simply one other day on the workplace.”

High picture: Finnair is routing flights to Asia over the North Pole. Credit score: Finnair