Lufthansa, British Airways, Among European Airlines Avoiding Pakistani Airspace, Shows Flight Tracker Data
Several European and British carriers are avoiding overflying Pakistan, which has shut its airspace for Indian airlines in response to measures by New Delhi following the Pahalgam terrorist attack.
On Thursday, flight tracking site Flightradar24 said in a post on X that Air France, British Airways and Swiss flights are adjusting routing since April 30 "to avoid crossing through Pakistan."
"Some airways in northern Pakistan are NOTAM'd unavailable through May, leading to adjusted routings with Pakistan as well," it added.
Later, Lufthansa, Italy's ITA Airways, and Polish airline LOT also joined the list of airlines routing around Pakistan, said Flightradar24 in another post on X.
NOTAM, an abbreviation for Notice to Airmen, is a notice to alert pilots of potential hazards along a flight route.
Some flights that avoided flying over Pakistan in the last two days without a NOTAM requiring them to do so included Lufthansa's Munich-Delhi, Frankfurt-Mumbai, Frankfurt-Hyderabad and Bangkok-Munich; LOT's Warsaw-Delhi and Alitalia successor ITA's Rome-Delhi.
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'If Situation Escalates...'
Routing over Pakistan added up to an hour to the flying time of these airlines. The move to route flights comes as countries do their own risk assessment for overflying any region, and if they deem a place unsafe, they reroute despite having no NOTAM barring overflying.
"We are constantly monitoring the situation. The moment the India-Pakistan conflict escalates, all flights will steer clear of the conflict zones," said an official of a leading Western airline, reported The Times of India.
"Airlines have done their last-minute rerouting as many planes will be en route when and if the conflict escalates," the official added.
In a statement, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines said: "In conducting its operations, KLM always prioritises safety of passengers and staff. Selecting safe and optimalroutes is a standard part of our daily practice, and we continuously assess the safety situation... Based on current safety information, KLM and other airlines are currently flying over Pakistan."
Last week, Pakistan announced shutting its airspace to Indian airlines after New Delhi announced a series of measures against the neighbouring country in the aftermath of the deadly terrorist attack in Pahalgam, where 26 civilians were killed.
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