The USA has closed its airspace to all Russian flights, president Joe Biden announced during the 2022 State of the Union Address, held on 1 March at 21:00 EST. "Tonight 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. "The ruble has lost 30% of its value." Biden also committed to enforcing powerful economic sanctions on Russia, alongside the USA's European allies. "We are cutting off Russia's largest banks from the international financial system, preventing Russia’s central bank from defending the Russian ruble making [Russian president Vladimir] Putin’s $630 billion 'war fund' worthless," Biden said. "We are choking off Russia’s access to technology that will sap its economic strength and weaken its military for years to come." Key European platforms have acted to cut Russia off from the global financial system, following economic sanctions directed at Russia's invasion of Ukraine, announced by the European Union in recent days. Earlier in the day on 1 March, clearing houses Euroclear and Clearsteam began ceasing and exiting Russian ruble-denominated transactions. Belgium-based SWIFT, which enables cross-border transactions between banks, said it was awaiting instructions from authorities seeking to cut ties with Russian banks. Data shows that in 2021, over 97% of tracked commercial passenger flights by Russian operators were destined for Europe and less than 1% were headed for North America.

British Airways has been forced to cancel more than 500 flights over the past three days because of a major IT outage at London Heathrow on 25 February. The IAG-owned carrier says it plans to operate its normal schedule on 28 February and is “working hard to make sure our customers are able to seamlessly travel through the airport to get them on their way as quickly as possible”. It adds that the outage was caused by hardware issue and not a cyber attack. On 26 February, BA cancelled all short-haul services from Heathrow as it sought to prioritise long-haul operations. BA has a troubled history of being impacted by IT issues, with incidents in 2017 and 2019, and a 2018 hack of customer account details, for which it was fined £20 million ($27 million). “This issue needs to seriously addressed by the management team,” writes Goodbody aviation analyst Mark Simpson, “with the fact that four such incidents looks more like underinvestment rather than ‘carelessness’.”

Latvian airline Air Baltic has extended the suspension of flights to and from Russia until the end of May due to restrictions imposed because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as well as safety concerns. “The safety and security of our passengers and employees is the main priority of Air Baltic,” the flag carrier says. Air Baltic says it is evaluating the current situation before each flight and remains in close contact with national and international authorities. It adds that it is flexible and ready to adjust its flight schedule when necessary. Air Baltic had previously decided to cancel flights to Russia from 26 February until 26 March.