West Asia Conflict Results In Cancellation Of Over 2,950 Flights Between India And Middle East | Representational Image
Mumbai: The current geopolitical conflict has resulted in cancellation of more than 2,950 flights of Indian and foreign carriers to and from the Middle East in the last seven days. The escalating tension has resulted in the global aviation industry being plunged into its most severe crisis since the Covid-19 pandemic with the cancellation of over 19,000 flights across the major Middle Eastern airports. Following the outbreak of hostilities on February 28, massive airspace closures across the Middle East have paralysed one of the world’s most critical transit corridors, leaving hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded and airlines facing staggering financial losses. The closure of flight information regions (FIRs) over Iran, Iraq, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and other parts of the Gulf has effectively blocked the primary bridge between Europe and Asia.According to data sourced from the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), the Israel-Iran conflict has resulted in cancellation of more than 2,300 flight operations of Indian carriers and over 650 cancellations for foreign carriers. On Friday, 278 flights to and from West Asia of Indian carriers were cancelled whereas 96 flights were operated.Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) reported cancellation of 73 flights, including 34 arrivals and 39 departures. Amid the ongoing repatriation efforts by Indian airlines to bring back stranded Indians from the Middle East through special flights as well as limited operations of scheduled flights, around 13 flights operated by Emirates, SpiceJet, Air India Express and FlyDubai arrived at CSMIA from Fujairah and Dubai.
The increasing number of cancellations have also resulted in increasing grievances from passengers. The civil aviation ministry, which has set up a special passenger assistance control room, stated that it had addressed 1,881 passenger grievances through AirSewa, helpline calls and social media platforms. It advised the passengers to keep a close watch on the latest flight updates and remain attentive to communication shared by their respective airlines.
The conflict in the Middle East has turned out to be a huge blow for the global aviation industry. According to flight tracking platform Flightradar24, more than 19,000 flights were cancelled across seven major airports in the Middle East, including Dubai, Doha, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Kuwait, Bahrain and Dubai World Central Airport. These airports collectively recorded a cancellation of over 1,400 flights on February 28, which peaked on March 1 and 2 at 3,400 cancellations on both the days. However, the cancellations have been consistently falling down from March 3 as these airports recorded a little over 1,300 cancellations on Friday. Also Watch:
The three major UAE airlines, including Emirates, Etihad Airways and flydubai, bore the biggest brunt of the geopolitical tension. Emirates, the region’s biggest carrier, operates around 520 flights everyday, which fell to as low as 24 flights on March 1. Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways operates around 320 flights and saw a drop in operations as low as four flights on March 1. Similarly, flydubai operated only one flight on March 1, dropping from around 345 flights everyday. While Emirates and flydubai have been reporting steady growth in operations with 214 and 173 flights operated on Thursday, Etihad Airways struggled with only 31 flight operations.The economic impact of these cancellations is expected to amount to thousands of crores in losses for airlines due to drop in revenue as well as increased operational costs due to fuel surcharges and longer detours. The catastrophic financial fallout is said to be costing around Rs150-200 crores per day to Indian carriers alone.The flight operations from the Middle Eastern airports are now on path towards normalcy as the number of movements at Dubai International Airport almost doubled for the third consecutive day on Thursday. The air traffic movements, which had fallen down below 20, jumped up to 310 movements on Thursday. Similarly, flight operations at Muscat International Airport are also growing with the operations up from 140 movements on March 1 to 280 on Thursday. To get details on exclusive and budget-friendly property deals in Mumbai & surrounding regions, do visit: https://budgetproperties.in/