It also means, China can sell a ticket AND make a profit on routes it European competitors have to charge a HIGHER Fee to Break even.
Remember on these fights, the Crew and meals are relatively minor costs, it is the FUEL the drives the price of tickets. Actual fuel per mile per passenger is low, but overall plane use is high.
For example a 747-8 can carry up to 63,034 gallons of Fuel. or 15786.5 Barrels of Fuel. At $80 a barrel that comes to $1,275,292.
http://www.boeing.com/boeing/commercial/747family/pf/pf_facts.page
A 747 gets 5 miles per gallon of fuel:
http://science.howstuffworks.com/transport/flight/modern/question192.htm
Thus if you extend how far that plane has to go, you increase fuel usage by about 40 cents for every mile diverted ($2 a gallon, 5 mpg, thus $4 for ten gallons, or 40 cents per mile);
Via Russia it is 5,058.67 miles
http://www.distance.to/Beijing/London
To avoid Russia, you have to add at least 2000 miles to that distance, and about 3 hours.
Thus you have added at least $800 in fuel cost to the trip. A 747 has the capacity of 452 passenger in two classes, thus about an extra $2 to the cost of each ticket in fuel alone.
Please note the above does NOT include having to stop over, avoiding Russia means flying the 747 to to maximum range without refueling. To be on the safe side the plane would have to stop somewhere to refuel, probably Anchorage Alaska (Via Anchorage the distance is over 8000 miles).
A slightly shorter distance from London to China would be to go via Egypt then Aden then Beijing,but that is still 2500 miles longer then over Russia and, while within the range of a 747, you are getting to close to any margin of safety (Google maps says about 7600 miles). Thus this ban, will kill non-stop traffic from Europe and the US to China and the Far East. Thus you are NOT looking at a 3 hour extra time in flight, but another 2 hours on the ground while the 747 gets refueled.
All of this extra time on the ground cost money. Maintenance people have to be paid, the flight crew has to be paid. The right to use the extra runway has to be paid for. More fuel is used taking off and landing then cruising at attitude, thus it is MORE fuel then just $800 mentioned above, thus we are talking about serious increase in costs, costs that Chinese and Russian flights will NOT have to absorb (At least $1000 per flight, and I suspect closer to $2-3000).
As to the US, it is another about 1500 miles to avoid Russia from New York City so same problems.
A $2 a ticket increase in fuel cost does not sound like much, but given the other extra expenses, expenses any plane able to fly over Russia can avoid, it may be enough to make Russia a nice profit (When I check flights from London to Beijing Aeroflot was the cheapest, but it was NOT a Non-stop).
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