India Closes 20 Airports Under Operation Sindoor; Airlines Reroute to Avoid Pakistan
Indian military have launched Operation Sindoor in response to the Pahalgam attack, resulting in the closing of 25 airports from May 10. Over 500 people will be affected most notably IndiGo Air India and IndiGo.
India Closes 20 Airports Under Operation Sindoor; Airlines Reroute to Avoid Pakistan
Civil flights were shut down at 20 airports in the north and western regions until 5.29 am on Saturday (May 10) until now, following the fact that India struck terror infrastructure within Pakistan as well as PoK early Wednesday morning. Indian airports closed include: Leh, Srinagar, Jammu, Amritsar, Pathankot, Chandigarh, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Jamnagar, Bhatinda, Bhuj, Dharamshala, Shimla.
Air India said two of its international flights going from Amritsar was diverted back to Delhi. The entire fleet, not only the ones run through Indian airlines, are going to be able to enjoy longer flight times between north and west India and Mumbai.KLM stated that its Amsterdam-Delhi route time will be an hour longer as well as its journey to Mumbai one hour and fifteen minutes more. Both flights will remain non-stop according to the Dutch company announced.
United has cancelled the New York (EWR)-Delhi flight on Tuesday night. This means that the Wednesday night flight Delhi-New York flight will also be cancelled.
Airports shut
In the statement, IndiGo said: "Due to the government's announcement regarding airline cancellations due to Operation Sindoo, more than 165 IndiGo flights departing from various airports (Amritsar, Bikaner, Chandigarh, Dharamshala, Gwalior, Jammu, Jodhpur, Kishangarh, Leh, Rajkot, and Srinagar) are suspended up to 5.29 am IST on 10 May 2025. Customers are advised to check the status of their flight via our mobile or website prior to boarding the plane. Flights affected by the issue may reschedule their reservation on the next flight that is available or cancel their reservation at no cost and an entire reimbursement will then be processed.
No Pakistan flights by foreign airlines as of now.
Pakistan had shut down its Pakistan airspace flight restrictions on April 24. However, from Wednesday morning, nearly all foreign airlines have stopped flying over Pakistan in their flights between the west and east. "All Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Scoot flights have ceased flying over the Pakistani airspace and are using alternative routes for flights beginning on May 6 2025. This could result in slightly longer flights for certain civilian flights suspended" SIA said.
