Russia’s civil aviation authority announced on Friday it has banned UK flights to and over its country in retaliation for a British ban on Aeroflot.
Rosaviatsiya said British airlines were now prohibited from landing at its airports or crossing its airspace.
The regulator said the measure was taken in response to the “unfriendly decisions” by the British authorities who banned flights to the UK by Russia’s flag carrier as part of sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine.
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace it was a retaliation to Britain’s decision to ban Aeroflot flights from UK airports.
“That’s their tit-for-tat response,” Mr Wallace told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
In a statement Russia said the ban was in response to the “unfriendly decisions” by the British authorities.
British Airways has said it is now avoiding Russian airspace for overflights and cancelled its flight to Moscow on Friday.
Russian airspace is a main corridor for European flights to Asia which will be forced to divert, heaping additional costs on airlines.
Luis Gallego, CEO of British Airways owner, IAG, said: “Following the UK government decision to ban Aeroflot from landing in the UK, we have taken the decision not use Russian airspace for overflights.
“We are avoiding Russian airspace for the time being. The impact for us is not huge because right now we are only flying to a small number of destinations in Asia and we can reroute our flights.”
The ban comes after Western powers announced a raft of new sanctions against Moscow.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Britain would aim to cut Russia off from the UK’s financial market.
The sanctions include freezing the assets of all major Russian banks, including VTB Bank, its second-biggest.
Britain also plans to bar Russian companies and the Russian government from raising money on UK markets, ban the export of a wide range of high-tech products, including semiconductors, to Russia.
It also announced Individual sanctions against more than 100 individuals, entities and subsidiaries including Rostec, Russia’s biggest defence company said to employ more than two million people with exports of more than £10 billion of arms each year.
The European Union and other Western allies, including Australia, Japan and South Korea, announced similar sanctions.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said on Thursday night: “I’ve signed restrictions prohibiting all scheduled Russian airlines from entering UK airspace or touching down on British soil.
“Putin’s heinous actions will not be ignored, and we will never tolerate those who put people’s lives in danger.”
Meanwhile the EU ambassador to the UK has said the sanctions on Russia will have a “huge impact”.
Joao Vale de Almeida told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme they will “touch the heart” of the country’s economy.
He added: “The measures we are taking today will have a huge impact on Russia, it impacts 70% of the banking system.
“It touched the heart of the state-owned companies that financed the war effort.”
