A senior official of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has said, "Conducted meetings with concerned airlines to sensitize them to remain vigilant and taking up all precautions, inclusive of avoiding those areas." However, no official instructions have been issued yet, confirms official.
Avoiding certain paths signifies longer travel time for flights which overfly these regions. While Air India has the maximum flights flying through the region between India and west, other carriers like IndiGo and SpiceJet also overfly these regions. When the FAA notice to airmen (NOTAM) to stay distant from Iran, Iraq and the waters of Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman was issued some of the flights were already en-route.
Flight tracking sites show a Mumbai-London commercial flight among the en-route flights that had to divert after the FAA issued airspace ban “because of intensified military activities and increased political tensions in the Middle East, which presents an unplanned risk to US civil aviation operations."
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Tehran has targeted US troop house bases in Iraq with a series of ballistic missile attack in the early hours of Wednesday (local time Iraq). Responses have been sought from airlines on which each of the flight will be impacted and extra flying time will be required to divert from the banned regions.
"In view of the latest developments in the region, all SIA flights in and out of Europe will not be flying over the Iranian airspace. We will continue to monitor the situation closely," says a Singapore Airlines spokesperson.
Issue of these advisories or bans as a precautionary measure is to avoid passenger airplanes to get targeted in conflict zones, says civil aviation authorities.