Airport security at highest level: Pre-boarding checks for flyers
NEW DELHI: Flights between north India and parts of west India and the west may get even longer in case of diversions after 27 airports were closed, as of Saturday morning. Rajkot was among the diversion/alternate airports for single aisle aircraft taking the longer route to and from the west after the closure of Pakistan airspace on April 24.
"Now the diversion airports are more distant, like Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Goa.
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So, in case of diversion, aircraft will have to fly for a longer distance both while headed there and then when resuming their journey to north India," said a senior pilot.
Airports that have been closed - till Saturday morning as of now - are Srinagar, Jammu, Leh, Chandigarh, Amritsar, Ludhiana, Patiala, Bhatinda, Halwara, Pathankot, Bhuntar, Shimla, Gaggal, Dharamsala, Kishangarh, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Mundra, Jamnagar, Rajkot, Porbandar, Kandla, Keshod, Bhuj, Gwalior and Hindon.
With almost all airlines, and not just Indian, now bypassing Pakistan airspace, air traffic between the east and west has shifted to the Mumbai side, leading to congestion. "Whenever Pakistan escalates the conflict, aircraft will get little farther away routes (from Pakistan airspace) in the Indian airspace. This will lead to slightly longer routes. But the big difference will be when an en route flight diverts to now further away airports in India," said a pilot.
Meanwhile, Indian carriers have pulled out their aircraft from the 27 closed airports. "The aircraft were flown out as ferry flights (without passengers). Crew stationed there has also been brought to Delhi or other places by trains. As of now, given the way Pakistan is brazenly acting, we don't know when normalcy will return and these airports will open. So, we couldn't have had our crew stuck there," said a senior official of an airline.
IndiGo
, for instance, flew out four aircraft from Chandigarh, and the crew stationed there travelled to Delhi by train. More international long-haul flights to and from India are now adding stops. United New York (EWR)-Delhi flight will now take a stopover at Frankfurt for a few days. All airlines are monitoring the situation very closely.
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