The military tension between New Delhi and Islamabad following Indian airstrikes on multiple Pakistani locations has prompted several Asian airlines, including of Bangladeshi ones, either to cancel or reroute flights.
Navigational data on Wednesday indicated that airspace over northern India and southern Pakistan had been nearly cleared, according to the FlightRadar24, n website monitoring live flights from across the globe.
Pakistan’s entire airspace was nearly free of civilian aircraft, barring a few flights, according to a report by Al Jazeera network.
The network reported citing a monitoring agency that Indian military aircraft flying over northern India and a Pakistani government aircraft in the south of the country via air navigation tracking sites.
This occurred just hours before the airspace was entirely cleared, coinciding with several flights diverting their routes from Pakistan, reported the network.
FlightRadar24 reported in the morning that 52 flights to and from Pakistan were cancelled as of Wednesday. There were 57 international flights operating in Pakistan’s airspace when India struck, according to a Pakistan army spokesperson.
At Karachi’s airport, only two international flights were reported so far after an eight-hour suspension due to heightened tensions.
Airlines operating based in Indian cities hampered severely as they were bound to divert or cancel many flights putting thousands of passengers stranded.
Air India cancelled flights to and from Jammu, Srinagar, Leh, Jodhpur, Amritsar, Bhuj, Jamnagar, Chandigarh and Rajkot due to the closure of airports following the tensions.
India’s flagship carrier said flights would be suspended until at least May 10.
India has also shut down multiple airports in its northern region, and additionally airlines like IndiGo, SpiceJet, and Akasa Air cancelled flights to 10 cities in northern and northwestern India near the border with Pakistan.
The changing airline schedules are set to further complicate operations in the Middle East and South Asia for carriers, who are already grappling with a fallout from conflicts in the two regions.
A Biman Bangladesh Airlines official in Saudi Arabia told Times of Bangladesh that all flights to and from the Middle East directions were asked to reroute avoiding Pakistan airspace.
“It may take long time, but we’ve to ensure safety,” the official said preferring not to be named as he was not officially permitted to talk to media.
Earlier, two Bangladesh-bound international flights decided to change their routes due to rising security concerns.
According to airport sources, the flights either diverted mid-air or altered their course in advance. Turkish Airlines flight TK-712/713, Dhaka-bound from Turkey, was diverted to Muscat International Airport in Oman, bypassing Pakistan’s airspace.
Jazeera Airways flight JZR531/532 was rerouted to Dubai, while the return leg (533/534) returned to Kuwait instead of continuing onwards to Dhaka.
Airport authorities said the diverted flights began arriving at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka from Wednesday morning onwards once traffic conditions gradually stabilised.
Al Jazeera reported, Malaysia’s flagship carrier Malaysian Airlines has cancelled flights to Amritsar, India, and rerouted two long-haul flights after the closure of Pakistan’s airspace.
Indonesia’s Batik Air cancelled several flights to and from Lahore, Pakistan, and India’s Amritsar.
A spokesperson for Dutch airline KLM told the network it was not flying over Pakistan until further notice.
Singapore Airlines also announced that it had stopped flying over Pakistani airspace while Taiwan’s EVA Air said it would adjust its flights to and from Europe to avoid airspace affected by the fighting between India and Pakistan.