ABU DHABI : Military escalation leads to Islamabad closing country’s airspace as airports in northern India suspend services
Airlines have cancelled and rerouted flights over South Asia after India struck a series of sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
Gulf carriers Emirates, Etihad and Qatar were among those to halt flights from Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha to airports in northern India and Pakistan, which has closed all airspace.
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.” -The National
May 7, 2025
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