Air India suspends flight to Moscow after insurers flag security concern

In an official statement, an Air India spokesperson said, “Air India has cancelled one return flight on the Delhi-Moscow-Delhi sector of 7th April, 2022”. However, information sourced from the flight tracking portal Flightradar24 showed that the airline, which operates a flight on the Delhi-Moscow route every Sunday and Thursday, had cancelled the April 3 service as well.

Air India renews the insurance for its flights and aircraft every financial year beginning April 1. It typically buys insurance cover from Indian reinsurers such as New India Assurance, National Insurance Company, Oriental Insurance Company and the United India Insurance Company, and the covers are underwritten by international companies, including some UK-based firms.

Airlines buy insurance covers to protect themselves against windfall losses in case of an untoward incident or accident involving their aircraft. Every insurance cover is tailor-made for a particular airline and is generally provided by a consortium of reinsurers and underwriters.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the country’s aviation was sanctioned by the West, leading to the suspension of services operated by European and American carriers. Russia’s airlines were also barred from using foreign airspace. After these sanctions, Air India was among the only few airlines, in addition to some Chinese carriers, that were still flying to Russia.

Additionally, while airlines from the US and Canada stopped using Russian airspace, Air India continued to overfly Russia for its flights between India and the US taking the shorter North Pole route.

“The insurance companies have only flagged a concern over aircraft landing in Russia, not with the overflight through the Russian airspace. So Air India’s other flights to the US which fly over Russia continue to operate normally,” a source said.