Airlines re-route, cancel flights due to India-Pakistan fighting

Irish Independent

08-05-2025

Key updates
LATEST: Airlines re-route, cancel flights due to India-Pakistan fighting
Irish citizens should avoid travelling to the border areas of India and Pakistan - DFA
Shweta Sharma: All eyes on how Pakistan will respond after India claims to hit 'terrorist camps' in pre-dawn airstrikes
14 minutes ago
14 minutes ago
15 minutes ago
Iran's foreign minister repeats call for restraint in India-Pakistan standoff
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi called for restraint between India and Pakistan upon landing in New Delhi on Thursday, state media reported, a day after India targeted what it says are 'terrorist camps' in Pakistan in retaliation for a deadly attack on tourists in Kashmir last month.
"We hope that India and Pakistan will prevent the escalation of tension in the region," Araqchi said, reiterating calls for restraint he made during his visit to Pakistan on Monday.
Islamabad rejected Indian allegations it had terrorist camps on its territory and pledged to respond to Indian strikes which it said killed at least 31 civilians.
New Delhi warned any Pakistani response would warrant retaliation, fuelling fears of a larger military conflict in one of the world's most dangerous - and most populated - nuclear flashpoint regions.
Araqchi's visit to India was pre-planned to attend a joint economic commission between the two countries.
"Our region needs peace, especially to expand economic cooperation between regional countries, and we hope this will happen," the foreign minister added.
Reuters
16 minutes ago
LATEST: Airlines re-route, cancel flights due to India-Pakistan fighting
India-Pakistan conflict disrupts commercial flights
Pakistan says 57 planes were overhead when India struck
Airlines face growing operational headaches
Airlines including United Airlines and Korean Air re-routed or cancelled flights and about a dozen Indian airports were shut on Wednesday after India struck nine sites in Pakistan, raising fears of an escalation.
India attacked Pakistani Kashmir and Pakistan said it had shot down five Indian fighter jets in the flare-up, which followed an attack by Islamist militants that killed 26 people in Indian Kashmir last month. India said it hit "terrorist infrastructure" related to the tourist killings. Pakistan rejects that it has such camps on its territory.
Images from flight tracking websites showed a long line of airlines passing over Oman, UAE and Kuwait after the attack, raising the possibility of airspace congestion.
Authorities in Pakistan said 57 international flights were in the country's airspace when India struck. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's office said India's action "caused grave danger to commercial airlines" belonging to Gulf countries and "endangered lives".
India's civil aviation ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Pakistan's remarks.
In the last few days, India and Pakistan had shut their airspaces to each other's airlines. Global airlines like Lufthansa LHAG.DE have also been avoiding Pakistan's airspace.
"If the conflict continues, there is a chance that Pakistan could impose a full airspace closure, as they did from Feb. to Aug. 2019 under similar circumstances," aviation advisory body OPSGROUP said in a blog post published Wednesday.
Domestic flights in both countries were also disrupted. Three percent of scheduled flights in India and 17pc of scheduled flights in Pakistan were cancelled as of 1030 GMT, according to Flightradar24.
India's top airline IndiGo said it was cancelling 165 flights till Saturday morning. Its shares were down 1.1pc. Flights belonging to Air India, SpiceJet and Akasa Air were also cancelled.
Pakistan said its airspace was open following closure after the attacks and that its airports were "fully functional."
Images from FlightRadar24 showed some civilian jets flying over Pakistan airspace but India's northwest continued to be deserted.
The changing airline schedules are set to further complicate operations in the Middle East and South Asia regions for carriers, which are already grappling with the fallout from conflicts in the two regions.
A spokesperson for Dutch airline KLM said it was not flying over Pakistan until further notice. Singapore Airlines SIAL.SI said it had stopped flying over Pakistani airspace since May 6.
Korean Air 003490.KS said it had begun rerouting its Seoul Incheon–Dubai flights on Wednesday, opting for a southern route that passes over Myanmar, Bangladesh, and India, instead of the previous path through Pakistani airspace.
United Airlines said it had cancelled its flight to Delhi, citing in part "airspace limitations". The U.S. airline operates one direct flight from Newark to New Delhi.
American Airlines AAL.O said it made adjustments to its operations to New Delhi and would allow customers impacted by the changes to change their plans without charge.
Thai Airways THAI.BK said flights to destinations in Europe and South Asia would be rerouted starting early on Wednesday morning, while Taiwan's China Airlines 2610.TW said flights to and from destinations including London, Frankfurt and Rome had been disrupted.
Flights from India to Europe were also seen taking longer routes. Lufthansa flight LH761 from Delhi to Frankfurt took about half an hour more to reach its destination compared to Tuesday, according to FlightRadar24.
The Association of Asia Pacific Airlines voiced concern over the impact of conflicts on airline operations.
"Apart from cost and operational disruption, there are safety concerns as GPS spoofing interfering with flight operations over conflict zones is one of the highest risks the industry faces," it said in a statement.
GPS spoofing is a malicious technique that manipulates Global Positioning System (GPS) data, which can send commercial airliners off course.
Abhijith Ganapavaram, Ben Blanchard and Ariba Shahid, Reuters
Yesterday 05:41 PM
The Irish Independent's live blog has come to an end for the evening on the latest conflict between India and Pakistan. We will resume live coverage on Thursday morning.
Yesterday 04:48 PM
Reduced to rubble: India strikes alleged headquarters of militant groups in Pakistan's heartland
Video footage from the early hours of Wednesday shows a bright flash from the residential Islamic seminary outside Bahawalpur in central Pakistan as India attacked its neighbour in response to the killing of Indian tourists in Kashmir.
The seminary was emptied of its students in recent days as speculation grew that would be targeted by India, but the family of Masood Azhar, founder of the Jaish-e-Mohammed Islamist militant group, was still there, according to the group.
Ten of Azhar's relatives were among 13 people killed in the strike, including women and children, the Pakistani military said. Thousands of people turned out for their funerals at a sports stadium later in the day, shouting "Allah Akbar", or God is Great, and other religious chants.
"(Indian Prime Minister Narendra) Modi's brutality has broken all norms," the group said in a statement. "The grief and shock are indescribable". It said that five of those killed were children and the others included Azhar's sister and her husband. It did not respond to a request for comment on why the family was still at the site.
Azhar, who has not been seen for years, and his brother, Abdul Rauf Asghar, deputy head of the group, did not appear to have attended the funeral prayers. The road to the site was cordoned off after the strike.
Further north, around half an hour after midnight, four Indian missiles hit a sprawling complex in Muridke over six minutes, a local government official said.
The attack demolished a mosque and adjacent administration building and buried three people in the rubble.
A sign outside describes the site as a government health and educational complex, but India says it is associated with militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). Delhi and Washington blame LeT for the 2008 attack on the Indian city of Mumbai that killed more than 160 people. LeT, which has has denied responsibility for that attack, is banned.
The attack left other buildings in the complex untouched. A local official said that normally there were up to 3,500 staff and students at the site, but almost everyone had been evacuated in recent days as they feared it would become a target.
Hafiz Saeed, leader of LeT and its successor organizations, is in a Pakistani jail since being convicted in 2020, on terror financing charges. He says his network, which spans 300 seminaries and schools, hospitals, a publishing house and ambulance services, has no ties to militant groups.
Delhi said it had conducted pinpoint strikes on the two headquarters of its militant adversaries, part of what it said were nine "terrorist camps" targeted.
"Over the last three decades Pakistan has systematically built terror infrastructure," it said in a briefing on the attacks.
Pakistan said India had hit six sites, killing 26 people and wounding 46, all "innocent civilians".
Officials and experts said India's attack on its neighbour, its most significant in decades, fulfilled a long-cherished goal, but Islamabad warned that it would hit back.
The conflict between India and Pakistan has been confined in recent decades mostly to the disputed mountainous region of Kashmir. But the air strikes in the towns of Bahawalpur and Muridke were seen in Islamabad as a major escalation.
India said seven of its targets were used by Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed, both Islamist groups designated "terrorist" organisations by the U.N. Security Council. India launched the attacks in response to the killing of 26 people, mostly tourists in Indian Kashmir last month.
Jaish says that it carries out educational and charity work in Pakistan and its militant activities are only in India. Delhi says that it runs training camps in Pakistan, as well as indoctrination schools, and that it launches militants into India.
For decades Hindu-majority India has accused Pakistan of supporting Islamist militants in attacks on Indian interests, especially in Kashmir. Pakistan denies such support and in turn accuses India of supporting separatist rebels in Pakistan, which New Delhi denies.
Yesterday 02:15 PM
Trump offers to help India, Pakistan as tensions rise
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he wants India and Pakistan to stop attacking each other now and offered to help the two countries work out their differences amid rising tensions.
"I want to see it stop. And if I can do anything to help, I will be there," he told reporters in the Oval Office.
Yesterday 01:12 PM
Former taoiseach Leo Varadkar pens joint letter to leaders of India and Pakistan urging peace
Former taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, and Former Scottish first minister, Humza Yousaf, have written to the leaders of India and Pakistan, urging restraint and de-escalation following the exchange of fire over Kashmir.
Writing as public servants and 'men with roots in the subcontinent', they called on Narendra Modi and Shehbaz Sharif, the Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan, to 'resist the pull of conflict'.
The former first minister is of Pakistani heritage while Mr Varadkar's father is from Mumbai.
The joint letter from Mr Yousaf and Mr Varadkar also urged diaspora communities around the world to 'resist division and reject hate'.
The letter said: 'We write this letter not only as former political leaders from Scotland and Ireland, but as sons of South Asia: one of us of Pakistani heritage, the other of Indian heritage.
'We love both these countries, their histories, cultures, and peoples helped to shape who we are, and inspired our commitment to public life.
'It is precisely because of that affection for both countries that we urge both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to exercise restraint, to de-escalate tensions, and resist the pull of confrontation.'
The letter continued: 'The path of conflict may rouse national pride in the moment – but it diminishes all of us in the long run, with civilians always paying the highest price…
'We know from our own experience in the UK and Ireland that reconciliation between former adversaries is never easy, but the prize of peace is always worth it.
'It requires cool heads, moral courage, and leaders who see beyond the immediate pressures of politics to the longer arc of history.'
Their joint letter comes after the most serious escalation of violence between the two south Asian nations in years.
In retaliation for the April 22 terror attacks in Pahalgam, India carried out airstrikes in Pakistani-administered Kashmir – as well as Pakistan itself – saying it was targeting 'terrorist infrastructure'.
At least 26 people, including a child, are reported to have died in the missile strikes.
Pakistan has responded with shelling, which has reportedly killed civilians, and claims to have shot down Indian fighter jets.
The Foreign Office has updated its travel advice for the region, warning against all travel within 10 kilometres of the India-Pakistan border and 16 kilometres of the line of control, the de facto border that divides disputed Kashmir.
PA
Yesterday 01:04 PM
Why are India and Pakistan on the brink of war and how dangerous is the situation?
India has launched military strikes against a number of sites in Pakistan and Pakistan's side of the disputed region of Kashmir, reportedly killing 26 people and injuring dozens more. India claimed the attacks were on terrorist infrastructure, but Pakistan denied this, and said these were civilians.
India says another ten people on the Indian side of the Kashmir region have been killed by shelling from Pakistan in the same period.
The exchange comes two weeks after a terrorist attack in Kashmir killed 26 people. The group Resistance Front (TRF), which India argues is a proxy for the Pakistani-based terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba, claimed responsibility for the attack.
India claimed that Pakistan had indirectly supported the terrorist attack, but Pakistan vehemently denies this.
The escalating conflict between two of the world's major military powers has the potential to destablise Asia and beyond. Already, many countries around the world, including the UK, France and Russia, have made public their concerns about what happens next.
How do India and Pakistan's militaries compare?
India is ranked as one of the world's top five military nations by Military Watch magazine and Pakistan is ranked ninth. Both countries have nuclear weapons.
Overall, India is considered to have the military edge with a bigger and more modern military force, while Pakistan has a smaller and more agile force that has been primarily focused on defensive and covert activities.
While neither country has used nuclear weapons in a conflict, there are always concerns that this norm may be broken. Both countries are nuclear powers with India holding 180 nuclear warheads, and Pakistan possessing about 170.
Though India has a 'no first use' policy, which it claims means the country would never use nuclear weapons first, there have been signs it is reconsidering this policy since 2019.
Pakistan has never declared a no first use policy and argues that tactical nuclear weapons are important to countering India's larger conventional forces.
The concern is that even if a small nuclear exchange were to take place between the two countries, it could kill up to 20 million people in a matter of days.
Why are the countries fighting over Kashmir?
Kashmir has been a source of tension and conflict even before India and Pakistan gained independence from the British empire in 1947. Originally the Muslim-majority Kashmir was free to accede to either India or Pakistan.
While the local ruler (maharaja), Hari Singh, originally wanted Kashmir to be independent, he eventually sided with India, leading to a conflict in 1947. This resulted in a UN-mediated ceasefire in 1949 and agreement that Kashmir would be controlled partly by Pakistan and partly by India, splitl along what's known as the Line of Surveillance (or Line of Control).
As Kashmir is rich in minerals such as borax, sapphire, graphite, marble, gypsum and lithium, the region is strategically important. It is also culturally and historically important to both Pakistan and India.
Due to the region's significance and disagreement over sovereignty, multiple conflicts have taken place over Kashmir, with wars erupting in 1965 and 1999. Tensions were renewed in 2016, after 19 Indian soldiers were killed in Uri, on the Indian side of Kashmir. India responded by launching 'surgical strikes' across the Line of Control, targeting alleged militant bases.
Then in 2019, a bombing in Pulwama (again part of the Indian-administered Kashmir) that killed more than 40 Indian paramilitary personnel led to Indian airstrikes in Balakot which borders Kashmir. This was the first action inside Pakistan since the Indian-Pakistani conflict in 1971 and again led to retaliatory raids from Pakistan and a brief aerial conflict.
These past conflicts never intensified further in part because India applied a massive diplomatic pressure campaign on the US, the UK and Pakistan, warning against escalation, while Pakistan showed a willingness to back down. Both sides as nuclear powers (India gained nuclear weapons in 1974 and Pakistan in 1998) had an understanding that escalating to full-scale war would be incredibly risky.
What will happen next?
The question is whether or not cooler heads will prevail this time. The strikes by India, part of Operation Sinhoor, were met with mass approval across many political lines in India, with both the ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) and the opposition Congress party voicing their support for the operation.
This helps Modi gain more backing, at a time when his popularity has been falling. Modi and the BJP suffered a shocking result in the 2024 election, losing 63 seats out of 543 seats and falling short of a majority in the Lok Sabha (lower house of parliament).
Under Modi, India has been rapidly becoming more autocratic, another source of concern as such countries are more likely to take risks when it comes to conflict. As power becomes increasingly personalised and dissent is repressed, would-be autocrats may be more likely to take on bold moves to garner more public and elite support.
Pakistan may also have reason to respond with more force to India's recent attack than in the past. Pakistan's powerful military has often stoked fears of a conflict with India to justify its enormous military budget. Regardless of the outcome, it needs a success to sell to its domestic audience.
Pakistan has been de facto led by its military for decades, which also makes it more likely to engage in conflict. In spite of intervals of civilian rule, the military has always held a lot of power, and in contrast to India (where there is a wider role for a civilian minister of defence), the Pakistani military has more influence over nuclear and security policy.
Both military regimes and multi-party autocracies may see conflict as a way of gaining legitimacy, particularly if both regimes think their political support is unravelling.
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This most recent escalation is also significant because it is the first time in the Kashmir conflict that India has struck at Punjab, considered the heart of Pakistan. Pakistan will face internal pressure to respond, settle the score and restore deterrence.
Both sides have been resolute in not losing an inch of territory. The question is how quickly diplomatic pressure can work. Neither India nor Pakistan are engaged in security dialogue, and there is no bilateral crisis management mechanisms in place.
Further complicating matters is that the US's role as a crisis manager in south Asia has diminished. Under Donald Trump, Washington cannot be counted on. This all makes deescalating this conflict much more difficult.
Yesterday 10:59 AM
Pakistan vows to respond to India in 'time, place and manner of its choosing'
Pakistan said at least 26 people had been killed on Wednesday and that India "had ignited an inferno in the region". Islamabad pledged to respond "at a time, place and manner of its choosing to avenge the loss of innocent Pakistani lives and blatant violation of its sovereignty".
A government security committee said Islamabad emphatically rejected Indian allegations of the presence of terrorist camps on its territory.
The Indian strikes included targets in Punjab, its first attacks on Pakistan's most populous province since the last full-scale war between the old enemies more than half a century ago, triggering fears of further hostilities in one of the world's most dangerous flashpoints.
"The targets we had set were destroyed with exactness according to a well-planned strategy," India's Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said. "We have shown sensitivity by ensuring that no civilian population was affected in the slightest."
Yesterday 09:43 AM
India dismisses report of Pakistan downing jets as 'disinformation'
The Indian Embassy in China on Wednesday dismissed as "disinformation" a social media post on X by China's state-run Global Times, which said that Pakistan had shot down Indian fighter jets.
The embassy's statement followed the Global Times post, which said that the Pakistan Air Force had downed Indian fighter jets in response to Indian missile strikes on Pakistan.
Reuters
Yesterday 09:07 AM
Department of Foreign Affairs issues advice to Irish citizens in India
The Department of Foreign Affairs and the Irish embassies in New Dehli and Islamabad are "closely monitoring the situation in India and Pakistan", a spokesperson has confirmed.
Irish citizens in the region have been urged to contact local embassies if they require consular assistance.
"Irish citizens in Pakistan and India are advised to exercise a high degree of caution and to avoid travelling to the India-Pakistan border, including Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan administered Kashmir," they said.
"Irish citizens are advised to exercise caution in public places, stay alert, monitor local news reports and to follow the advice of local authorities.
"An airspace closure is in effect in Pakistan for 48 hours. Affected citizens should contact their airlines regarding flights."
"Any Irish citizen who requires consular assistance can contact the Embassy of Ireland, Pakistan on [phone] or the Embassy of Ireland, India, on [phone]."
They added that the latest travel advice for India and Pakistan is available on the Department's website.
Maeve McTaggart
Yesterday 07:41 AM
The UK on Wednesday said it was urging India and Pakistan to show restraint and engage in dialogue following the worst fighting in more than two decades between the nuclear-armed neighbours.
"Current tensions between India and Pakistan are a serious concern," British foreign minister David Lammy said in a statement. "The UK government is urging India and Pakistan to show restraint and engage in direct dialogue to find a swift, diplomatic path forward."
Yesterday 06:19 AM
India launched strikes on Pakistan and Pakistani Kashmir , an assault its neighbour called a 'blatant act of war' as tension spirals between the nuclear-armed rivals after a deadly attack on tourists in Indian Kashmir last week.
India said its Operation Sindoor struck nine Pakistani sites on Wednesday that provided 'terrorist infrastructure' and from which attacks against it were orchestrated. Its military spokesperson said the sites were completely destroyed.
Sindoor, which refers to the red vermilion powder worn by married Hindu women, is an apparent reference to the widows left by the 22 April attack that killed 26 men, most of them Hindu.
India accuses Pakistan of backing the massacre, a charge Pakistan denies. Both had also expelled diplomats and citizens, ordered the border shut and closed their airspace for each other ahead of Wednesday's strikes.
But the two nuclear powers have been locking horns for decades.
Here's a look at multiple conflicts between the two countries since their bloody partition in 1947:
India and Pakistan: A bloody history scarred by conflicts since 1947 partition
India launched strikes on Pakistan and Pakistani Kashmir , an assault its neighbour called a 'blatant act of war' as tension spirals between the nuclear-armed rivals after a deadly attack on tourists in Indian Kashmir last week.
Yesterday 05:38 AM
Yesterday 05:36 AM
Turkey urged India and Pakistan to act with common sense amid the military escalation between them, its foreign ministry said on Wednesday, saying India's latest military action created the risk of an "all-out war".
In a statement, the ministry reiterated its support for Pakistan's call for an investigation into an Islamist militant attack that killed 26 in the Indian-administered side of the Himalayan region on April 22.
Reuters
Yesterday 05:30 AM
India claims to have struck nine "terrorist camps" in Pakistan on Wednesday that it accused of serving as indoctrination centres, training areas, and launchpads, two weeks after an attack in Indian Kashmir that the south Asian nation linked to its neighbour.
Here is a look at the locations India "destroyed".
MARKAZ TAIBA CAMP
India says the camp, 25 km (16 miles) from the de-facto border, was the headquarters of militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which has been linked to last month's attack.
Ajmal Kasab, the sole perpetrator of the 2008 attack on Mumbai to be captured alive, was also trained at the facility. More than 160 people were killed in the attack on India's financial capital.
MARKAZ SUBHAN CAMP
The target deepest in Pakistan, about 100 km (62 miles) from the border, this camp was the headquarters of Islamist group Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and was used for recruiting, training, and indoctrination, India says.
MEHMOONA JOYA CAMP
India says attacks planned and executed from this camp, a training facility of militant group Hijbul Mujahideen 12 km (7 miles) from the border, include a 2016 attack on an Indian air base that killed seven.
GULPUR CAMP
This camp was a base for LeT located 30 km (19 miles) from the border, India says, adding that a June attack targeting pilgrims in Kashmir's Poonch region, which killed nine, was among those executed by "terrorists" trained at the facility.
Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attack, also frequented the camp for "indoctrination and motivational speeches".
SARJAL CAMP
India says the perpetrators of an attack in March that killed four police personnel in India's Jammu and Kashmir were trained and launched from the camp, 6 km (4 miles) inside Pakistan.
ABBAS CAMP
This camp, located 13 km (8 miles) from the border, was the "nerve centre" for training LeT suicide bombers, India says.
SYEDNA BELAL CAMP
India says this camp, a staging area for JeM, was used to provide weapons' and explosives' training, and survival techniques for "terrorist activities" in Indian Kashmir.
SAWAI NALA CAMP
Located about 30 km (19 miles) from the de-facto border, the camp was a key training facility for LeT, India says.
BARNALA CAMP
India says this facility was used to train terrorists in weapon handling, improvised explosive device making, and jungle survival techniques.