Air Travel to India

[Zapp Brannigan]

Bahnhof Strasse 2hats

For context - my wife is due to fly on a work trip to India and Singapore in 10 days time. I'm no aviation expert, but to my untrained eye just about every viable flightpath goes over at least one of Russia, Ukraine, Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Israel - basically the entire west-east journey is over a north-south corridor of war zones.

Am I right to be worried, or is it business as usual at 37k feet?

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

They fly around the dodgy areas.

This is Iran right now:




Only local carriers are over it, all the western carriers are in the Gulf of Oman and Persian Gulf. Last night there were no aircraft at all over Iran.


For India and Singapore you won't go over Russia anyway, but for destinations that do, such as Japan, western airlines are forbidden to fly over there, so they fly under it, causing flights to take a lot longer to get there, which is why BA is stopping services to Beijing and Virgin's pulling out of Shanghai.

Chinese carriers are still flying over Russia, oddly Cathay Pacific isn't, even though Hong Kong is very much part of China now.


Then look at what's not flying over Ukraine:




So your wife will fly across Europe, south of Israel, across Sinai, Saudi Arabia, down The Gulf and across to India from there.

All good.

 

[Zapp Brannigan]

They fly around the dodgy areas.

This is Iran right now:

View attachment 444977


Only local carriers are over it, all the western carriers are in the Gulf of Oman and Persian Gulf. Last night there were no aircraft at all over Iran.


For India and Singapore you won't go over Russia anyway, but for destinations that do, such as Japan, western airlines are forbidden to fly over there, so they fly under it, causing flights to take a lot longer to get there, which is why BA is stopping services to Beijing and Virgin's pulling out of Shanghai.

Chinese carriers are still flying over Russia, oddly Cathay Pacific isn't, even though Hong Kong is very much part of China now.


Then look at what's not flying over Ukraine:

View attachment 444979


So your wife will fly across Europe, south of Israel, across Sinai, Saudi Arabia, down The Gulf and across to India from there.

All good.

Thanks. I wondered how far south they might go before it becomes an unviably long way round - appreciate your putting my mind at (relative) ease.

 

[2hats]

Most to/from Gulf hubs are currently routing via Egypt and Saudi airspace.

​

Though much of the airspace is currently (technically) open.

Some flights to/from parts of former SSRs are using Iranian airspace.

 

[Silas Loom]

Some flights there still seem to cross the air corridor between Israel and Yemen, which might see some drama. Not that I think your wife has anything to worry about Zapp, just interested in how airlines approach these risks.

 

[Silas Loom]

Goodness.

 

[hash tag]

I had heard the detours are having an environmental impact.