Air France demands tax on Chinese carriers over Russia

Air France demanded to tax Chinese carriers in order to “level the playing field”: Russian airspace is closed to it, and this gives Chinese airlines a competitive advantage,saving travel time and fuel

Air France has demanded that the French government take action against Chinese airlines over the "unfair advantage" they have gained by using Russian airspace, Bloomberg reports .

As the representative of Air France told Bloomberg, the airline insists on equal conditions. “Now there is a distortion of competition that needs to be overcome,” he said.

Air France is pushing the authorities to impose additional taxes on Chinese airlines, which should equalize the cost of flights with the French carrier. After all, if before the COVID-19 pandemic , Air France operated 32 flights a week to China , now there are only six.

Alphavalue analyst Yi Zhong explained to Bloobmerg that passengers prefer to choose Chinese airlines due to lower fares, which are also provided by lower fuel costs due to flights over Russia.

A spokesman for the agency in the French government specified that the authorities are committed to a "progressive and balanced" restoration of ties with China, but this week ministry representatives will meet to discuss the issue raised by Air France.

The United States , along with the European Union and other partner countries, closed airspace to Russian aircraft in early March 2022, shortly after the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine . The ban affected passenger and cargo, charter and regular flights. Russia responded by banning aircraft from more than 30 countries, including France, from flying through its territory.

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Earlier, American airlines, whose interests are represented by the Airlines for America industry group, expressed dissatisfaction with the existing unequal conditions of competition. Due to the closure of Russian airspace, they have had to lengthen transoceanic routes, deliberately leaving dozens of tickets unsold in order to increase fuel supplies. Ticket prices and travel times have increased significantly.

Against this background, the US Department of Transportation has developed a draft order to ban Chinese air carriers from flying to the United States over Russian territory, The New York Times reported in March.

The fact that the closure of Russian airspace turned into an increase in costs was also reported by Air Canada .