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Pakistan recloses airspace till Friday

Dunya News

Due to the prevailing security situation in the country, the airspace was shut down on Wednesday.

LAHORE (Dunya News) - The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) announced on Thursday that Pakistani airspace will be reclosed for commercial aviation until 3pm on Friday.

Due to the prevailing security situation in the country, the airspace was shut down on Wednesday however; it was partially restored yesterday, starting with Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport.

The ‘partial resumption’ tweet was however; deleted later and in another tweet in the early hours of Thursday morning, CAA retracted and said that the closure was in fact still intact.

Later, CAA tweeted that the airspace has been temporarily restored. Following this some flights were restored for Saudi Arabia and UAE.

On the other hand, four Thai Airways flights bound for Europe have left Bangkok and are flying over China, instead of the normal route over India and Pakistan.

According to a tweet posted by FlighRadar24, which tracks air traffic in real time from all around the world, the four Thai Airways planes are shown flying over China.

Earlier today, thousands of travelers were stranded in Bangkok when Thai Airways International canceled more than a dozen flights to and from Europe after Pakistan closed its airspace amid rising tensions with India.

Thai Airways flights resumed by Thursday afternoon after the airline secured permission to reroute flights over Chinese airspace, but it could take up to three days to clear a backlog of 3,000 passengers, an airline official said.

Flights to and from London, Munich, Paris, Brussels, Milan, Vienna, Stockholm, Zurich, Copenhagen, Oslo, Frankfurt and Rome had been scheduled to fly over Pakistani airspace on Thursday, Thai Airways said in a statement.

Most of the airline’s European flights leave after midnight and the cancellations left scores of passengers stuck at Suvarnabhumi International Airport on the outskirts of Bangkok.

Thailand is among the world’s most popular tourist destinations, drawing more than 38 million visitors last year, about 6.8 million of them from Europe.

Thera Buasri, director of Thai Airways’ ground operations control department, told reporters that stranded passengers had boarded flights home by Thursday afternoon, and the airline may send passengers on partner airlines.

Many airlines route flights over Pakistan and the closure of its airspace caused major disruptions on Wednesday. China’s civil aviation authority said at least 40 flights by foreign carriers had been diverted through its airspace.

Emirates and Qatar Airways suspended flights to Pakistan and others, such as Singapore Airlines and British Airways, were forced to reroute flights.

On Thursday, Singapore Airlines said its Europe-bound flights would continue as planned and bererouted as necessary to avoid the affected airspace. Malaysia Airlines said on its website it was not currently flying over the affected airspace.

On the other hand, after Pakistan partially reopened its airspace on Thursday, three flights departed from Pakistan.

Emirates EK637 from Peshawar to Dubai Air Arabia G9825 from Peshawar to Ras Al Khaimah Qatar Airways QR601 from Peshawar to Doha have left from Islamabad, Multan and Karachi so far.

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