Airlines are invading Saudi airspace as the West Asian conflict flares
By Siddharth Philip and Albertina Torsoli
Airlines connecting Europe to the Middle East and South Asia are being forced to take a more circuitous route and use Egyptian and Saudi Arabian airspace, as the escalating conflict in the Middle East has affected routes over Iran for many airlines and Iraq blocks.
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British Airways, Emirates, Deutsche Lufthansa and other airlines began diverting services from Iraqi airspace at around 5:30 pm in Britain on October 1, when Israel’s IDF said missiles had been fired into the country from Iran. Many airlines have switched to flying the width of Saudi Arabia and over the Sinai Peninsula, based on flight path playbacks on tracking website FlightRadar24.
Dutch airline KLM also said it has diverted some of its flights and avoided the airspace of Iran, Iraq and Jordan. On Wednesday morning, most airlines gave Iraqi airspace a wide lead, although some Emirates flights to the US were still flying over Iran.
Flying more circuitous routes increases flight times and fuel costs for airlines, and complicates schedules that depend on planes being in the right place at the right time.
Airlines in Europe, the US and Canada have already faced costly detours around banned Russian airspace on flights to Asia, forcing them to curtail flights to China as their local rivals could operate shorter and more direct flights.
–With help from Kate Duffy.
©2024 BloombergLP
First publication: Oct 02, 2024 | 11:34 PM IST