Willie Walsh, outspoken head of the world's biggest airline trade body, IATA, joined the European Union's top permanent transport official Henrik Hololei on stage at the Airline Economics conference in the world's aviation finance capital.
But Walsh wanted to know what could be done to lift that closure, which threatens to penalise some Western airlines at the expense of Chinese and other carriers that continue to fly over Russia.
He added there would be no "business as usual" if Russian airspace did reopen.
Airlines accuse airports of overcharging carriers, while airports say they have to fund huge capital investments.
"We allowed those who wanted to find the poster child for environmental damage to pick on aviation," he said.