It said all flight plans that use routes in the area are being rejected
It follows the crash of Malaysian airliner flight MH17 with 295 people on board, amid claims it was shot down
Flights already airborne are being routed around the area by air traffic control in the region, a Department for Transport spokesperson said.
Flight MH17 was on a flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it came down near the village of Grabovo.
The European Cockpit Association (ECA), which represents more than 38,000 European pilots, said the route flown by the crashed Malaysian aircraft was “the most common route for flights from Europe to South East Asia.”
Airline Emirates said its flight EK171 from Dubai to Kiev had returned to Dubai “due to the safety concerns raised with the latest reports on Malaysian flight MH17″.
It added that its flights to Kiev were suspended “with immediate effect, till further notice”.The airline said its flights to and from the US and other European destinations used a different route and were outside the zone where the incident involving MH17 occurred.
German airline Lufthansa said it had decided to “fly a wide detour around east Ukrainian airspace with immediate effect”.
It said the decision would affect four of its flights on Thursday. “The safety of our passengers is our top priority,” a spokesperson added.
Similarly, Virgin Atlantic said it would re-route “a small number” of its flights on Thursday, following the incident.
“We do not anticipate significant delays and are planning for increased flight lengths on impacted flights of approximately 15 minutes,” a spokesperson added.
British Airways said its flights did not use Ukrainian airspace, with the exception of a once-a-day service between Heathrow and Kiev, reports the BBC.
A spokesman for BA said they were keeping those services under review, but that “Kiev is several hundred kilometres from the incident site”.
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