โWe are making all efforts to ensure minimal disruption to customers, while assisting impacted passengers.โ
Emirates advises customers departing or arriving at Dubai International Airport to check their flight status for the latest information.
Every airline maintains a system to look for notification warning of hazards that could affect a flight route. Before any flight, pilots look for these notifications, called NOTAMs (short for Notice to Air Missions or historically โNotice to Airmenโ), which also cover events such as volcanic eruptions or the outage of an aviation navigation system, a spokesperson for the Civil Aviation Safety Authority says.
There is a whole system sitting behind every flight checking every time for operational directions around each bit of airspace, CASA says.
It is understood Qantas has not made any changes to its flight paths through the region, which already avoid the combat zone.
A source close to Qantas said it regularly reviewed flight-path options to Europe and altered them as needed based on changes in weather and security. Virginโs wet-lease agreement, in which Qatar Airways flies Virgin passengers between Australia and Doha, launched last week, is reportedly unaffected by the airport closures.
The emergence of open-ended conflicts in the Middle East and Europe, where Russiaโs full-scale war on Ukraine has raged since 2022, have clouded the picture for commercial aviation.
In December, an Azerbaijan Airlines flight bound for Grozny, Chechnya, was shot down by a Russian surface-to-air missile.
Loading
Russian targets far from Ukraine have come under attack by the Ukrainian military as Moscowโs war on Kyiv drags on.
An Air France flight was flying over Iraqi airspace on October 1 when a slew of Iranian missiles passed nearby at night.
The pilots saw the missiles and Iraqi air traffic control reportedly wished them โgood luckโ. Air France immediately stopped flying over Iraq and opened an internal investigation into the incident, according to Le Monde.
In 2020, Iran accidentally shot down a Ukrainian International Airlines 737, killing all 176 abroad.
Iran was firing a volley of missiles at US forces in the region in retaliation for an American air strike which killed Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani who was in Iraq at the time.
Post-World War II, international air travel has proliferated in an era of generally peaceful international relations.
The International Air Transport Association noted in its June annual report: โGeopolitical tensions are giving rise to varied risks in diverse regions.โ
In 2014, pro-Kremlin militants in eastern Ukraine shot down a Malaysia Airlines flight, killing 298 people onboard including 38 Australians.
The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. Sign up to get it every weekday morning.
About The Author
