Across the North Pole, from Tokyo to Berlin: Because of the war in Ukraine, Chancellor Olaf Scholz gave Russia ample space on the way back to Tokyo from his visit to Japan on Friday. With the Airbus A350 “Kurt Schumacher”, the largest and most modern machine in the Bundeswehr flight readiness service, he arrived at the North Pole at 1 pm German time. The alternative route ran from Japan first north via Alaska, then west across the Arctic Ocean and finally via Finland to Germany. After about 13 hours and 30 minutes and 12,319 kilometers of flight, the plane landed at BER airport in Schönefeld, near Berlin, in the evening.
The chancellor took about 1 hour and 20 minutes longer than the direct route, which passes through China and then mainly through Russia’s vast empire. Airspace over Ukraine is closed because of the war, and Western airlines avoid airspace over Russia for security reasons.
“Things You Don’t Do Often”
Flying over the North Pole is a rare highlight even for experienced pilots. “This is exciting. These are things you don’t do very often,” said Luftwaffe flight captain Michael Weyerer, who safely flew the chancellor to Berlin with co-pilot Phillip Reipert. For Weyerer, it was only the second crossing of the North Pole. In 2017, he took then-Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle from Laos in Southeast Asia to New York. At that time, the shortest route was over the North Pole.
Scholz had already avoided Russia and Ukraine on the way there – but in the south. It crossed Poland, Romania, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and China, among other places, and flew over the Black Sea, whose northern coast is the Ukrainian war zone. At a good 13 hours, this also took a lot longer than the normal route.
I haven’t been to Japan all day
Scholz stayed in Japan for just over 20 hours – less than the entire flight time. He met with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, attended an economic conference and concluded with a visit to a hydrogen plant on Friday morning. It was only his second long-distance trip as chancellor, after a visit to Washington in February.
In fact, Scholz relaxed again for the long flight: he was wearing jeans and a sweater, just like on his first long-haul flight to Washington. At the time, it received a lot of style criticism because the sweater appeared to be at least one size larger. This sweater fit him much better – and Scholz wore a shirt underneath.