Is Ukrainian Airspace Open? The Official Position, and Where to Check It

Aviation & asset finance | JVS Law

Ukrainian airspace has been closed to civil traffic since 24 February 2022. That much is not in doubt. What people actually need — and what is surprisingly hard to find in one place — is which instrument says so, how long it runs, and where to look when it changes.

This page holds the current position with its sources, and the answer to the question behind the question: what a closed airspace does to an aircraft, a lease and an insurance policy.

Three sources, and they answer different questions. Confusing them is the most common mistake.

EASA’s Conflict Zone Information Bulletins tell you what European operators are advised to do. A CZIB is a recommendation, not a prohibition — the binding effect on a given operator comes from its own state authority, which normally follows it. The Ukraine bulletin is the one cited above; check its revision date, because the number stays and the content moves.

The Ukrainian NOTAM and the AIP are the legal instrument that actually closes the airspace. They are what a court or an insurer will look at, and they are published by the Aeronautical Information Service of Ukraine, which operates under the air navigation service provider.

Two honest caveats about that link. The AIS products — the AIP and the NOTAM series — sit behind a subscription; the freely visible part of the site has not been updated in years. And EUROCONTROL’s EAD Basic, which people reach for as a free alternative, is a demonstration tool that its own operator says is not connected to the operational database and must not be used operationally.

In practice, an operator gets its NOTAMs through its flight-planning or briefing provider. That is the reason the EASA bulletin is what everybody quotes: the primary instrument is published, but it is not something the public can casually open and read.

The State Aviation Administration of Ukraine is the regulator: certification, registration, permissions, and the entry point for the International Registry under the Cape Town Convention. It is where anything about reopening would be formalised on the Ukrainian side.

A fourth thing worth saying: martial law and airspace closure are not the same instrument and will not necessarily end on the same day. Martial law is extended in ninety-day increments and its end date moves; the airspace restriction has its own life.

This is the part that costs money, and it does not pause while the airspace is shut.

De-registration and export are two different acts. Ukraine’s Cape Town declarations are unusually creditor-friendly — Alternative A with a sixty-day waiting period, IDERA, remedies without leave of court — and the de-registration limb still works on paper. The export limb needs a corridor. What the declarations give you, and where they stop.

The payment obligations keep running. Lease rentals, currency settlement deadlines and withholding on outbound payments are matters of Ukrainian domestic law and are unaffected by the airspace status. Whether a force majeure clause reaches them depends on how it was drafted, not on the fact of the war.

Insurance is the binding constraint on reopening, not the law. An aircraft cannot operate into airspace no underwriter will cover, whatever a regulator permits. That is why the insurance and infrastructure question is the one to watch — the model that would have to exist before flights resume.

Airport assets are a separate question from flight operations. Ownership, concessions and investment in ground infrastructure are live now, and are being planned on the assumption that the airspace reopens later — what the signals actually say.

Not one announcement. A sequence, and each step is checkable.

• The Ukrainian NOTAM is amended or withdrawn — partially or for defined corridors first, most plausibly in the west.
• EASA revises or withdraws CZIB-2022-01R14, and national authorities follow.
• Underwriters price war risk for the corridor, at a level an operator can actually carry.
• Airports and ANSP demonstrate operational readiness — including the digital and security infrastructure insurers now expect.
• Lessors consent. Most leases restrict operation into listed territories; a permission from a regulator is not a permission from your lessor.

If you are planning around a reopening date, that last point is the one most often missed: the airspace can open and your aircraft still cannot go, because the lease says so.

Last reviewed: 11 August 2026. Next scheduled review: February 2027. This page states the position on the dates shown and is reviewed twice a year; the underlying instruments change more often than that, so check the sources above before acting on anything here. Nothing on this page is a substitute for a current operational or legal assessment.