(Reuters) – Finland is preparing to close its airspace to Russian air traffic, according to Minister of Transport and Communications Timo Harakka, the latest European country to take the step in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Russia’s likely countermeasure will heavily hurt Finland’s state carrier Finnair, for which a key strategy is to fly from Europe to Asia over Russia.
Several other European countries, including Lithuania and Latvia, have also said they were closing their airspace to Russian airliners, while Germany said it was preparing to do so.
(Reporting by Maria Ponnezhath in Bengaluru; Editing by David Clarke and Jan Harvey)
