FILE PHOTO: An Air India passenger plane flies near houses as it makes its landing approach to Heathrow Airport in west London, Britain, January 28, 2025. India’s national carrier has stopped all flights to and from Europe, the east coast of North America and the Middle East. - Reuters
NEW DELHI: Air India Ltd. suspended flights across major parts of its international network as the carrier joins major global airlines in grappling with extensive disruptions from the Middle East conflict.
India’s national carrier has stopped all flights to and from Europe, the east coast of North America and the Middle East, it said in a post on X. Some flights heading for India were forced to return to their point of origin or were being re-routed, it said.
Global airlines have faced widespread disruption from the conflict in the Middle East, as missile exchanges forced carriers to navigate around a wide swath of territory, tear up flight schedules and turn around aircraft.
Several Persian Gulf states, including Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, briefly closed their airspace as Iran launched a missile strike at a US air base in Qatar. But they’ve subsequently reopened, allowing the region’s major airlines - Emirates and Qatar Airways - to resume operations.
US President Donald Trump announced Israel and Iran had agreed to what he called a "complete and total” ceasefire, easing fears that a conflict between the two adversaries might escalate.
Air India’s suspensions affect about 30 per cent of its deployed capacity measured in available seat kilometres, according to Bloomberg News calculations using Cirium aviation data.
The airline has been particularly hard hit due to its location, which sees it flying over huge parts of the Middle East to make it to destinations in Europe and the US east coast. Air India is also taking heightened safety precautions as it reels from the deadly crash of one its jets almost two weeks ago that killed at least 241 people in the world’s worst aviation disaster in over a decade.
India’s biggest airline, IndiGo, also warned of disruption to destinations it served across the Middle East. - Bloomberg
