The United States will follow the European Union and Canada in banning Russian flights from its airspace, President Joe Biden said on Tuesday evening, in a move likely to trigger Russian retaliation.
United Airlines and United Parcel Service (UPS) said on Tuesday they had suspended flying over Russian airspace, joining other major U.S. carriers Delta Air Lines and American Airlines . read more
"I am announcing that we will join our allies in closing off American airspace to all Russian flights, further isolating Russia and adding an additional squeeze on their economy," Biden said in his State of the Union address.
The White House had held extensive talks with U.S. airlines about the issue in recent days.
The ban will take effect by the end of Wednesday.
Russian flights were already effectively barred from U.S. destinations for the most part in recent days because of bans on the use of Canadian and European airspace.
Some foreign governments had privately questioned why the United States did not move faster to ban Russian planes, as had some U.S. lawmakers.
The European Union had said on Tuesday that it was speaking to U.S. counterparts about extending the ban as it gave more details of the EU's closure of airspace to Russian aircraft imposed after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
Airlines already face potentially lengthy blockages of key east-west flight corridors after the EU and Moscow issued tit-for-tat airspace bans. read more