As a result of this crisis, the airspace over Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Israel, Bahrain, the UAE, and Qatar remains almost empty.
Thousands of flights have been canceled, and the repercussions of this situation are being felt far beyond the region. At the airports in Frankfurt, Bali, Dhaka, and Kathmandu, tens of thousands of passengers have found themselves in difficult situations, leading to overloaded hotlines and long queues at airline counters. Major carriers, including Emirates and Qatar Airways, have completely halted their operations at these hubs, while German airline Lufthansa has extended its cancellation of flights to this region. On Sunday, around 4,000 flights were supposed to be in the air heading to the area.
Experts note that the closure of airspace for more than 24 hours and the suspension of operations at three major Gulf transit hubs are unprecedented. Dubai and Doha play a key role in air travel between Europe and Asia, and now planes and crews are scattered around the world, unable to return to their base stations. This fundamentally disrupts airline schedules and complicates the process of restoring flights.
To avoid closed airspaces, airlines are forced to reroute their flights through narrower corridors, significantly increasing travel times. The loss of routes over Iran and Iraq further exacerbates an already complicated situation in the aviation industry. Experts warn of a high risk of prolonged disruptions, which poses a serious threat to commercial aviation at this time. In particular, Air India has already suspended its flights from India to major cities in Europe and North America.
