Airspace closure grounds thousands of air travellers

Thousands of passengers were left stranded all around the globe yesterday after Islamabad suddenly closed its airspace in response to soaring tensions with India. Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said it would keep airspace shut until 11.59pm local time (1859 GMT), disrupting major routes between Europe and South East Asia. According to reports, about 800 flights a day use the India-Pakistan air corridor, making the situation extremely critical.

Though some of the airlines adjusted by rerouting flights, travel chaos hit several airports in GCC and around the world with several of the airlines including Emirates, Etihad, flydubai SriLankan Airlines, Qatar Airways, Bahrain’s Gulf Air, Air Canada and Thai Airways suspending flights to and from Pakistan “until further notice”. Flight tracking portals showed Singapore Airlines, British Airways and others were forced to reroute flights as operations across major airports, including in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi have been suspended.

Airlines flying over India and Pakistan to Europe, the Middle East and Asia were disrupted and some flights were routed through Mumbai on India’s western coast, so they could head further south and avoid Pakistan air space, an Indian government official said. “You can’t overfly China, so you have to overfly Pakistan and India and go to Southeast Asia and Australia. Most of the traffic destined for Bangkok and Singapore will have to fly over Iran and then possibly take a detour,” Mark Martin, founder and chief executive at Martin Consulting India told Reuters. Dubai’s Emirates confirmed that flights to Pakistan yesterday were cancelled.

“Due to the closure of Pakistani and Afghanistan airspace, a number of Emirates flights to from Pakistan and Afghanistan on 27 and 28 February have been cancelled, a spokesperson said. In Bahrain, Gulf Air confirmed that all flights to and from Pakistan have been cancelled due to the closure of air space. “On 27 February, flights to/ from Lahore, Multan and Islamabad are cancelled and all passengers will be transferred to next available flights when the airspace is open again,” it said in a statement. Low-cost carrier flydubai said it is reviewing its schedule.

In a statement, Abu Dhabi Airports also announced that all flights from Abu Dhabi International Airport and Al Ain International Airport, on all operating airlines to Pakistan, “are on hold until further notice”. Etihad said flights EY233 and EY243, both due to depart from Abu Dhabi to Islamabad and Lahore, have been grounded until further notice. Emirates was earlier forced to cancel 10 return flights to Pakistan while Qatar Airways pulled flights to Peshawar, Faisalabad, Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore and Multan. Saudi Airlines also suspended all flights to Pakistan “until further notice”. Meanwhile, pictures have emerged showing hundreds of passengers stranded at Thailand’s Suvarnabhumi Airport following cancellations.

Twenty-seven flights, the majority to and from European routes, have been cancelled, the Thai flag carrier said, with three passenger jets forced to return to Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport on Thursday. Thai Airways said nearly 5,000 passengers had been caught up in the cancellations. “There are 4,000 from European flights and 700 to 800 from flights to Pakistan,” a Thai Airways spokesperson said. Thai Airways struggled to find new routes to Europe with Iran “rejecting” a request to travel over its airspace, according to a spokesperson for the carrier.

But a few hours later China gave “permission to Thai Airways ... to bypass Pakistani airspace,” according to Pratana Patanasiri, Thai Airways Vice President, allowing Thursday night’s flights to Europe to resume.  With the tensions further rising with Islamabad, domestic operations in India and Pakistan were also disrupted with airports in certain parts of India including also Srinagar, Jammu, Leh, Pathankot, Amritsar and Shimla also temporarily suspended flights on Wednesday, officials said.