DUBLIN - Russia must stop charging foreign airlines for the use of Siberian airspace as and when overflight restrictions introduced as a result of the Ukraine conflict are eventually lifted, a senior European Union official said on Monday.

"If one day we will have the opportunity to see the opening up of Russian airspace, one thing has to disappear: the Siberian overflight royalties," Henrik Hololei, director-general for mobility and transport at the European Commission, told the Airline Economics conference in Dublin.

"Any opening of Russian airspace will not be business as usual," he added.

(Reporting by Joanna Plucinska, Tim Hepher; editing by Jason Neely)