The airspace north of Delhi was a no-fly zone for commercial airlines for nearly four hours on Wednesday, forcing airlines to suspend flights to and from nine airports.
Operations at Leh, Jammu, Srinagar, Chandigarh, Amritsar, Dehradun, Dharamashala, Shimla and Kullu were impacted between 10.30 a.m. and 2.30 p.m. as a result of a directive from the Indian Air Force.
Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authority, too, shut its airspace around 11.15 a.m. “The Civil Aviation Authority of Pakistan has officially closed its airspace until further notice and issued NOTAM,” it said on Twitter.
NOTAM stands for Notice To Airmen, or a circular. Pakistan had not lifted the restriction until the time of going to press.
Re-routing
“International flights exiting Indian airspace north of Mumbai will have to re-route through Muscat,” said an official of the Ministry of Civil Aviation on condition of anonymity. As a result, flights of Indian and foreign carriers that overfly Pakistan had to take a longer route.
An official said that some flights may even be forced to stop at Ahmedabad for refuelling.
A senior official of DGCA said that it allowed airlines to extend duty timings of their crew.
According to Air India sources, the airline had to re-route flights returning from the U.S. to India via Al Maktoum airport in Dubai and Sharjah airport, where they made a stop for re-fuelling. If the airspace restriction is not lifted by Pakistan, Air India’s flights to Europe may take up to four hours longer to reach their destinations due to the longer route as well as a fuelling stop either in Europe or Middle East.
Jet Airways said it cancelled 18 flights. Air India said in a statement that no flights were cancelled though there were delays of several hours. IndiGo said it will resume flights from Srinagar, Jammu, Chandigarh, Amritsar and Dehradun on Thursday.
Airlines pitch in with free cancellation charges
Air India announced that it will cap airfares for flights from Delhi to Leh, Srinagar and Jammu to Rs 5,000 until first week of March.
Air India has also offered change of dates for flights booked by para-military and armed forces without any additional charges for the same time period.
Vistara said passengers would be offered free cancellations and full refund to all passengers booked to or from Amritsar, Leh, Jammu and Srinagar upto March 31. It will also provide the same benefit to Indian soldiers traveling to and from anywhere in the country until end of next month.
IndiGo said it was offering free cancellations to all Indian soldiers who are forced to cancel their leaves and resume duties.
