Iran’s missile attacks disrupted the global civil aviation industry, forcing many airlines to reroute flights and subsequently reroute flights to avoid Iranian, Iraqi, Syrian and Israeli airspace.
On the evening of October 1, a number of international flights were flying over Iran when Iran began firing ballistic missiles at Israel in retaliation for Tehran-backed militias in the region.
According to flight tracking website Flightradar24, two Lufthansa flights operating between Frankfurt and Mumbai and Hyderabad, LH756 and LH752, turned back from Turkish airspace before entering Iran during the missile attack. The Warsaw-Mumbai flight of Polish airline LOT and the London-Mumbai flight of Air India were also in Iranian airspace at the time of the attack.
When LOT flight LO75 was diverted to Baku Airport in Azerbaijan, Air India flight AIC128 continued to Mumbai.
According to flight tracking data, Lufthansa canceled flights from Hyderabad to Frankfurt (LH753/01) and Mumbai to Frankfurt (LH757/01) on October 2 due to tensions in West Asia.
“Passengers have been rerouted or accommodated,” Jeffrey James, head of communications for Asia Pacific at Lufthansa Group, told news agency PTI.
Lufthansa operates approximately 65 flights per week from Europe to India.
As tensions persist, airlines – particularly those operating between India and Europe – have rerouted routes to avoid Iran and other countries where Iran-backed militia groups are active.
The situation is similar for flights with stopovers in the Gulf and Arab countries. For example, Qatar Airways’ Delhi-London and Delhi-Milan flights and Etihad Airways’ Mumbai-London flight EY17 now fly over Saudi Arabia and Egypt instead of Iraq.
On October 2, some flights to and from India were delayed.
Air India said in a statement that all its flights, whether in the Middle East or any other part of its route network, are assessed daily for potential safety or security risks. “If required, we will make adjustments to avoid risk areas and have minimal impact on our uninterrupted operations. We are closely monitoring the situation,” the airline said.
Air India has suspended flights to Tel Aviv (Israel) until further notice.
Other global airlines also diverted or canceled flights following the attacks, with regional airports in Lebanon, Israel and Kuwait experiencing severe delays.
Emirates announced the cancellation of all scheduled flights to and from Iraq (Basra and Baghdad), Iran (Tehran) and Jordan (Amman) on October 4 and 5. “We will continue to closely monitor the situation in the region and remain in contact with relevant authorities as the situation develops,” the company said in a statement on Thursday.
FlightRadar24 spokesman Ian Petchenik said: “Most airlines have rerouted flights out of Iran, with northern routes to Asia via Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India and southern routes over Egypt and Saudi Arabia.” according to Reuters.
Concerns about travel disruptions as conflicts intensify have also weighed on share prices in the travel and airline industries.
Iran launched its largest missile attack on Israel on Tuesday night in retaliation for Israel’s actions against Iran-backed Lebanon’s Hezbollah, prompting Israel to threaten a “painful response.”
According to Flightradar24, among Indian airlines, Vistara’s VTI023 Mumbai-Paris, Mumbai-Frankfurt flight UK27, New Delhi-Frankfurt VTI025 and Air India’s London-Mumbai flight AIC128 have started to bypass Tajikistan and Turkmenistan starting from October 2. data.