Taliban instead of Putin: who now controls Europe's vacation flights to Asia

Thomas Baier The Taliban are cashing in on European vacation flights. Kabul charges 700 US dollars per overflight - and the number of flights over Afghanistan will have increased fivefold by 2025. Anyone flying with Lufthansa, British Airways or KLM to Tokyo or Bangkok today is highly likely to cross Afghan airspace. Without functioning air traffic control, without radar, without conventional traffic management. The pilots report their position themselves by radio. There must be a 15-minute gap between the aircraft. According to the Cockpit pilots' association, this is manageable - but an additional burden in an already strained system. The pincer situation in the sky European airlines are caught in a double blockade. In the north, the Siberian route has been closed since 2022. Russia closed its airspace to aircraft from over 35 countries - in response to Western overflight bans following the invasion of Ukraine. 17 million square kilometers of restricted area, twice the size of the USA. Since then, flights to Tokyo or Seoul have taken up to four hours longer. The next blow came in the south. The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has been warning against overflights over Iran, Israel and the Persian Gulf since 2025. The Iran war has made the airspace there largely unusable. Dubai flies at 70% capacity. What remains is a narrow corridor over Turkey, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan - and then Afghanistan. The Kabul Flight Information Region is now the bottleneck between Europe and Asia. 280 overflights a day - and the Taliban are making money too According to FlightRadar24 data, the number of daily overflights over Afghanistan has risen from around 50 in spring 2024 to an average of 280 since June 2025. On October 2, 2024, one day after the Iranian attack on Israel, the Taliban reported 350 transit flights in 24 hours. Each flight costs 700 US dollars in transit fees. At 280 flights per day, that's over 6 million US dollars per month. The World Bank noted back in 2024 that these fees contributed to Afghanistan's economic growth. The payments are made via middlemen: GAAC Holding, based in the Emirates, operates the Afghan airports and collects the fees. Direct transfers to the Taliban authorities are hardly possible due to frozen accounts and Western sanctions. Lufthansa, Air France, British Airways, KLM, Singapore Airlines and TUI are among the airlines that regularly use Afghan airspace. According to the industry portal airliners.de, several Western service providers have never received an invoice from Kabul - the payment channels remain opaque. Chinese airlines fly relaxed via Russia Chinese airlines do not have this problem. Air China flies Frankfurt-Beijing in nine hours. Lufthansa needs eleven for the same route. British Airways to Beijing takes almost two hours longer than China Southern on the same route - because the British are not allowed to fly over Russia. China Southern will open a new Beijing-Helsinki route in summer 2026. Chinese carriers are planning a total of 2,900 additional European flights in the 2026 summer timetable. Chinese airlines now control around 83% of capacity between China and Europe. The competitive advantage of Russian airspace is massive. What the passenger pays The surcharge affects passengers directly. According to an analysis by Travel and Tour World, average prices on seven major routes between Asia and Europe rose by almost 70% in June 2026 compared to the previous year. The airspace closures over Russia and the Middle East are costing airlines 20 to 30% more fuel per flight. Individual routes show the extent: Bangkok-Frankfurt rose from 410 to 2,484 euros. Hong Kong-London from 435 to 2,872 euros. Sydney-London from 634 to 3,354 euros. Two hours longer, 560% more expensive. Outlook: A corridor with no alternative The situation will not ease in the short term. EASA has extended its warning for the Middle East until at least April 2026. Russia's airspace will remain closed for the foreseeable future. And the Caucasus corridor over Azerbaijan - only 160 kilometers wide at its narrowest point - is reaching its limits. Transit traffic through Azerbaijan increased by 36% compared to 2023. In March 2026, an Iranian drone hit Nakhichevan airport for the first time. The security risk is growing. For the Taliban, the skies over Kabul are a source of income created by the West itself. For European airlines, it is an emergency exit with no real alternative. And for passengers, a silent fact remains: anyone flying to Asia in the summer is paying the price of a world order that has become fragile. The post Taliban instead of Putin: Who controls Europe's vacation flights to Asia now appeared first on ostwirtschaft.de.