Major airlines have cancelled and rerouted flights over South Asia after India struck nine sites in Pakistan and Pakistan occupied Kashmir.
Qatar, Gulf carriers Emirates and Etihad are among those to halt flights from Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha to airports in northern India and Pakistan, which has closed all airspace.
After the Pahalgam attack in which 26 lives were lost on April 22, India and Pakistan had shut their airspace for each other.
Etihad said it had rerouted planes mid-flight. IndiGo and SpiceJet also issued warnings.
“Airports in parts of northern India, including Dharamshala, Leh, Jammu, Srinagar and Amritsar, are closed until further notice,” SpiceJet said early on Wednesday morning.
Emirates has cancelled flights between Dubai and destinations including Sialkot, Lahore, Islamabad and Peshawar.
“Customers on cancelled flights must not proceed to the airport in Pakistan. Flights to/from Karachi are not impacted and will be operating as per schedule,” a statement read.
Etihad said: “As a result of the closure of Pakistani airspace, Etihad Airways flights – EY284 (Abu Dhabi to Lahore), EY296 (Abu Dhabi to Karachi), and EY302 (Abu Dhabi to Islamabad) – which were en route to Pakistan on 6 May, have returned to Abu Dhabi.”
The airline said that Karachi to Abu Dhabi, Lahore to Abu Dhabi and Islamabad to Abu Dhabi were suspended.
Also affected was flydubai, with some of the budget airline’s flights suspended or diverted earlier on Wednesday. Flights to Karachi continued to operate and other routes were starting to resume services.
“Flydubai flights to Karachi on May 7 are operating to schedule and we have also resumed our operations to Faisalabad, Lahore, Multan and Sialkot,” said a representative.
“We continue to monitor the situation closely and the safety of our passengers and crew is our priority. We apologise for the inconvenience caused to our passengers’ travel schedules.”
Taiwan’s EVA Air said that it will adjust its flights to and from Europe to avoid airspace affected by fighting between India and Pakistan for safety reasons.
One flight from Vienna will be diverted back to that city, while a flight from Taipei to Milan will be diverted to Vienna for refuelling before continuing on to its destination.
Korean Air said it had began rerouting its Seoul Incheon–Dubai flights on Wednesday, opting for a southern route that passes over Myanmar, Bangladesh, and India, instead of the previous path through Pakistani airspace.
Thai Airways said that flights to destinations in Europe and South Asia would be rerouted starting early Wednesday morning, warning this could cause delays to some flights.
The website of Taiwan’s main international airport at Taoyuan, outside Taipei, showed that Wednesday’s China Airlines non-stop flight to London had been cancelled.
