• Niger’s ruling military group suddenly closed its airspace on Sunday.
• This means airlines flying between Europe and southern Africa have to detour around the volatile nation.

Flights between Europe and several nations in Africa just got longer.

On Sunday, Niger’s ruling military group — or junta — suddenly closed the country’s airspace until further notice, citing threats from neighboring nations who have called for a reverse of the junta’s July 26 coup.

According to FlightRadar24, this restriction means airlines that used to fly to countries like South Africa and Ghana via Niger skies now have to go around adding hours of flight time and up to 600 or more miles to the already long journeys.

A British Airways flight from Johannesburg to London was en route when the closure went into effect, and the plane opted to turn back rather than divert.

The carrier told Insider on Monday that the situation is out of British Airways’ control and it has apologized to its customers for the disruption.

It’s not the only European carrier feeling the impact.

In a statement to Bloomberg, Air France said service to Niger has been suspended until further notice, and routes to and from African nations are expected to take between 15 minutes and two hours longer.

Air France flights to Mali and Burkina Faso have also been halted until August 11.

Like Niger, the nations are ruled by juntas and have already sent officials to Niger in support — with a transport plane from Burkina Faso’s capital of Ouagadougou to Niger landing after the ban went into effect, according to the BCC.

Meanwhile, Dutch flag carrier KLM is told Insider it expects detours of 15-20 minutes thanks to a security system it uses to “analyze risks to determine safe flight routes, including the closure of Nigerien airspace.”

The most affected KLM routes are to Johannesburg and Cape Town in South Africa and to Entebbe, Uganda. Moreover, the spokesperson said flights to Accra, Ghana, and Lagos, Nigeria, will also be impacted, but “to a lesser extent.”

Airlines like Virgin Atlantic Airways, Lufthansa, and Swiss International Airlines are also avoiding Niger.

While detours are forcing passengers to spend extra time in the air, they’re also incurring added fuel and labor costs — the two most expensive elements of an airline’s operation.

The situation is similar to what’s happening in Russia due to its wartime airspace closure, with Japan Airlines and Finnair currently spending thousands to fly an extra four hours between Helsinki and Tokyo.

With the closure of Niger’s airspace, airlines are now grappling with an even wider section of no-fly territory in north-central Africa.

European nations including Germany, France, and the UK do not currently allow civil aircraft to fly over neighboring Libya due to the country’s volatile political situation and anti-aircraft weaponry.

Meanwhile, Sudan officially closed its airspace in July, but planes have been detouring around the nation since April after groups of its government fell into armed conflict.