Air Canada flight to India turns back after Pakistan closes airspace, 27 Feb 2019

[dotr]

rbbm
Air Canada flight to India turns back after Pakistan closes airspace | CBC News

Air Canada's flight to Delhi made it across the Atlantic Ocean, before turning back to Toronto on Wednesday. (CBC)

An Air Canada flight from Toronto to Delhi turned back over Europe today after the Pakistani government decided to close its airspace amid heightened tensions with India.

The flight left Toronto at 9:39 p.m. ET Tuesday and was in the air for more than 12 hours before it landed back in the city around midday Wednesday. It had already crossed the Atlantic Ocean and was flying over Europe when it turned around.

Air Canada temporarily suspended service to India on Tuesday, a spokesperson said in an email.

The airline had cancelled a Delhi-bound flight from Vancouver on Tuesday night, and said Wednesday it had cancelled that night's flights to Delhi from both Toronto and Vancouver, saying there are currently no suitable alternate routes."

"Pakistan said it shot down two Indian military jets on Wednesday and captured a pilot, a day after Indian warplanes struck inside Pakistan in what New Delhi said targeted a terrorist training camp. With tensions between the two nations escalated, leading powers have urged the nuclear armed rivals to show restraint."

 

[dotr]

 

[Gardenista]

Ugh.

 

[Amonet]

Airlines reroute to avoid Pakistan

That article says a lot of flights between Australia/NZ/Asia and Europe are affected and airlines are struggling to reroute them all due to crowded airspace as planes are forced to fly south of Pakistan/India air space and are unable to route some flights north as they can't fly over Chinese air space.

 

[LadyL]

wow
we live in scary times

 

[dotr]

Feb 28 2019
India Pakistan crisis: Thousands of flights disrupted worldwide, Pakistan airspace still closed - CNN
"(CNN)Pakistan airspace remained closed Thursday morning local time as the country's increasingly fraught tensions with India disrupted thousands of flights worldwide for the second straight day.

All international and domestic commercial flights in and out of Pakistan were canceled "until further notice," Pakistan's Civil Aviation Authority told CNN.
Thousands of people were also stranded by affected airlines that not only land in Pakistan, but fly over its airspace -- one of the major routes from Southeast Asia into Europe.
Thai Airways announced that all its European routes "departing near midnight of 27 FEB through early 28 FEB" were canceled "due to sudden closure of Pakistani airspace as a result of tension between India and Pakistan."
As of Thursday, there will be no Thai Airways flights between Bangkok and London, Munich, Paris, Brussels, Milan, Vienna, Stockholm, Zurich, Copenhagen and Oslo, the airline said in a statement."

 

[PrairieWind]

Wow, that would stink! You fly for 12 hours and end up right back where you started from. Hopefully this all settles down quickly. I think it will.