Australia's Qantas Airways Ltd has decided to skirt Russian airspace and use an alternative longer flight path between Darwin and London due to the Ukraine crisis, according to a statement issued by the airline on Sunday.

"Given the current circumstances and complexities, we're opting to use one of our alternative flight paths that doesn't overfly Russia, while we continue to monitor this evolving situation," Qantas said in a statement.

Flights operated over northern Russia will be routed over the Middle East and southern Europe instead, which will increase the flying time by about an hour.

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