MUMBAI: Sixteen airports in the north and western parts of India are currently closed to civil flights. The unplanned closure was put into force in the early hours of Wednesday, hours after ‘Operation Sindoor‘ targetted terror sites in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan.The list of airports shut include Leh, Thois, Srinagar, Jammu, Amritsar, Pathankot, Chandigarh, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Jamnagar, Bhatinda, Bhuj, Dharamshala, Shimla, Rajkot, and Porbandar, according to aviation sources.A Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) is expected to be issued soon. “There is no information yet on how long these airports will remain shut to civilian flights. Currently, we have rescheduled all flights of the day,” said an airline official.Unlike these unscheduled airport closures, Mumbai airport is scheduled to remain shut for six hours from 11am to 5pm on May 8. The annual pre-monsoon maintenance work on both runways will be carried out during this period. Airlines have been informed about the Mumbai airport closure in advance, so flights won’t be impacted.The sudden closure of the said 16 airports led airlines to re-route and reschedule their departures and arrivals from these airports, affecting flight movements at other airports as well. Early on Wednesday morning, airlines alerted passengers to the airport closures, changes in routes, and possible delays to flight schedules across India. Passengers booked to fly on Thursday have been advised to check their flight status before leaving for the airport.IndiGo, in an advisory, said: “In continuation to our earlier update and in wake of the prevailing situation, flights to/from Srinagar, Jammu, Amritsar, Leh, Chandigarh, Dharamshala, Bikaner, and Jodhpur stand cancelled for the day.” The airline added that it was anticipating changes in flight schedules across their network and “sincerely advise all customers to stay updated on their flight status before heading to the airport.”Air India Express tweeted that “multiple flights on our network are impacted due to prevailing restrictions. For alerts and notifications on flights, please ensure your contact details are updated on airindiaexpress.com/manage-booking.” “We request our guests to please confirm their flight status on airindiaexpress.com/flight-status or #ChatWithTia for immediate assistance on +91 63600 12345.”Air India tweeted: “In view of the prevailing situation, Air India has cancelled all its flights to/from the following stations – Jammu, Srinagar, Leh, Jodhpur, Amritsar, Bhuj, Jamnagar, Chandigarh, and Rajkot – till 12 noon on May 7 pending further updates from authorities.”In a press conference held in the morning, the Indian govt announced that ‘Operation Sindoor’ was executed through coordinated efforts of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, conducted from Indian territory. The defence ministry described the operation as “focused, measured, and non-escalatory,” deliberately avoiding Pakistani military installations.Following the Pahalgam attack, Pakistan closed its airspace to India, impacting flights flying west from India. Since April 24, over 130 westbound international flights taking off daily from northern and eastern airports such as Delhi, Amritsar, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Jaipur, and Kolkata are being re-routed south where the Ahmedabad and Mumbai air traffic control assign them altitudes and put them onto L639 or L301 to overfly the Arabian Sea and reach the Muscat airspace. Once there, they turn north to overfly Iran and complete the detour. In normal times, these flights, after taking off, turn west to cross over to Pakistan and show up on the radars of Lahore or Karachi air traffic control before they move into Iran.
