Air India cancels Europe, US East Coast flights on Iran crisis
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The airline has been particularly hard hit due to its location, which sees it flying over huge parts of the Middle East.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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NEW DELHI – Air India suspended flights across major parts of its international network, as the carrier, still reeling from a deadly plane crash earlier in June
India’s national carrier has stopped all flights to and from Europe, the east coast of North America and the Middle East, it said in a post on social media platform X.
Some flights heading for India were forced to return to their point of origin or were being re-routed, it said.
Global airlines have faced widespread disruption
Several Persian Gulf states, including Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, briefly closed their airspace as Iran launched a missile strike at a US air base in Qatar. But they have subsequently reopened, allowing the region’s major airlines – Emirates and Qatar Airways – to resume operations.
US President Donald Trump announced Israel and Iran had agreed to what he called a “complete and total” ceasefire
Air India’s suspensions affect about 30 per cent of its deployed capacity measured in available seat kilometres, according to Bloomberg News calculations, using Cirium aviation data.
The airline has been particularly hard hit due to its location, which sees it flying over huge parts of the Middle East to make it to destinations in Europe and the US east coast.
Air India is also taking heightened safety precautions as it reels from the deadly crash of one of its jets almost two weeks ago that killed at least 241 people in the world’s worst aviation disaster in more than a decade.
India’s biggest airline, IndiGo, also warned of disruption to destinations it served across the Middle East. BLOOMBERG
