Airlines across the globe continue to cancel and reroute flights to and over parts of the Middle East after US and Israeli air strikes on Iran triggered cascading airspace restrictions, security alerts and direct attacks affecting aviation infrastructure over the weekend.
According to data from aviation analytics company Cirium, more than 2,000 flights to the Middle East were cancelled on March 1, around half of the scheduled flights for that day. However, earlier today, Etihad Airways became the first airline in the region to restart operations when one of its Airbus A380s departed Abu Dhabi bound for London Heathrow. Since then, several other flights have departed for destinations including Amsterdam, Paris and Moscow. Emirates has also said it will begin operating a small number of flights from Dubai starting Monday evening.
Large sections of airspace over Iran, Iraq and parts of the Gulf still remain closed or heavily restricted. Flight-tracking data continues to show wide gaps across normally dense corridors linking Europe with South Asia and Southeast Asia. Airlines are avoiding the region due to the risk of missile or drone activity and the possibility of misidentification in contested skies.
Over the weekend, the disruption intensified after missile and drone attacks were reported at several of the region’s airports. Officials said four airport workers were injured at Dubai International Airport. Meanwhile, one was killed, and seven others were injured in a drone strike at Zayed International Airport in Abu Dhabi.
Airlines Extend Suspensions
Among the notable developments was the departure of a Lufthansa Airbus A380 from Abu Dhabi on a special service after receiving clearance via a revised routing. The aircraft (D-AIMK) became the most tracked flight in the world as it avoided closed corridors and followed an extended westward path, illustrating the complex operational planning now required for long-haul departures from the region.
British Airways has cancelled services to Tel Aviv and Bahrain until Wednesday. Services between Heathrow and Abu Dhabi, Amman, Bahrain, Doha, Dubai or Tel Aviv could be affected for several days, it said. Virgin Atlantic has also suspended its services to Dubai and Riyadh, whilst warning that flights to India, Saudi Arabia and the Maldives may take longer due to rerouting around the affected region.
US airlines have also been caught up in the chaos. On Friday, an American Airlines Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner was forced to turn back over the Mediterranean, about seven hours into its flight from Philadelphia to Doha, due to airspace closures. The jet touched down back where it had started, some 16 hours earlier.
Regulators and aviation safety agencies continue to warn of elevated risk in the region. Even where airports have partially reopened, airlines face uncertainty due to rapidly changing military activity and the possibility of short-notice closures. Insurers and aviation analysts note that even if airspace restrictions begin to ease, many carriers are likely to maintain conservative routings for days or weeks.
Cover image credit: Tony Hisgett from Birmingham, UK, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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