India shuts multiple airports till May 10; over 400 flights cancelled, tourists stranded nationwide

Passengers wait at Terminal 2 of Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi, India, July 1, 2024. —Reuters

MUMBAI: The increased tensions between India and Pakistan severely impacted the Indian aviation sector as multiple airports in the northern and western regions of India were temporarily shut on Wednesday. More than 400 flights were cancelled across the country as a few routes are expected to be shut till May 10.

On the other hand, various Indian airports were shut temporarily on Wednesday after the Indian government issued a notification on airspace restrictions.

These airports included Srinagar, Leh, Jammu, Amritsar, Pathankot, Chandigarh, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Shimla, Dharamshala, Jamnagar, Bhuj, Rajkot, Bikaner, Hindon, Nanded, Adampur and Kishangarh.

Assessing the impact due to Pakistan’s potential retaliation, the Indian aviation authorities also directed closure of multiple airports until 5:29 am on May 10, which has again affected hundreds of airlines.

The major brunt was suffered by IndiGo, the largest Indian airline according to market share, which has cancelled more than 165 flights from multiple airports. This includes Amritsar, Bikaner, Chandigarh, Dharamshala, Gwalior, Jammu, Jodhpur, Kishangarh, Leh, Rajkot and Srinagar.

Similarly, Air India also announced the cancellations of flights to and from Jammu, Srinagar, Leh, Jodhpur, Amritsar, Bhuj, Jamnagar, Chandigarh and Rajkot until 05.29am on May 10. SpiceJet also cancelled its flights to and from Leh, Srinagar, Jammu, Dharamshala, Kandla and Amritsar.

All the airlines have announced full refunds to customers for the flights cancelled due to government restrictions and have also allowed the travellers to reschedule their journey at no extra cost.

According to live aircraft tracker Flightradar24, flight cancellations logged in India reached 430, until 4 pm on Wednesday, which was only 3 percent of the scheduled flights. On the other hand, Pakistan recorded cancellation of 147 flights, which amounted to 17 percent of the scheduled flights.

The sudden escalation of tensions has caused worries to thousands of travellers who were to be travelling on the cancelled routes. The customer support centres of the airlines are also flooding with distress calls from customers who have booked their flights on the cancelled routes. This also includes flights connecting Mumbai Airport with the airports shut till May 10. Several tourists from Mumbai are also stuck at these closed airports.

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