Pearson Airport in Toronto on Feb. 11. Air Canada says it has cancelled direct flights to Tel Aviv, Israel and Dubai from the airport.Jon Blacker/The Canadian Press
Air Canada and international carriers cancelled flights to the Middle East from Canada on Sunday as U.S. and Israeli air strikes against Iran closed airports and disrupted air travel in the region and beyond.
War in Iran kept major Middle Eastern airports including Dubai, the world’s busiest international hub, closed for a second consecutive day on Sunday in one of the sharpest aviation shocks in recent years. Key transit airports, including Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates and Doha in Qatar, were shut or severely restricted as much of the region’s airspace remained closed after U.S. and Israeli strikes killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Air Canada said it cancelled direct flights to Tel Aviv, Israel, and Dubai, UAE, from Toronto Pearson International Airport on Sunday. In addition, the following flights from Pearson were also cancelled: Emirates to Dubai, Etihad Airways to Abu Dhabi and Qatar Airways to Doha, according to the airport and Cirium, an aviation data company.
Pearson told passengers in an advisory on Sunday they should check with their airlines before coming to the airport. “Some flights at Toronto Pearson are impacted by changes to international airspace. Airlines are adjusting routes and schedules in response, which may lead to delays or cancellations,” Canada’s busiest airport said.
Air Canada’s flights to Cairo, Saudi Arabia and Istanbul were not affected.
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Air Canada typically flies four times a week to Israel and daily to Dubai. Peter Fitzpatrick, an Air Canada spokesman, said the airline’s next scheduled flight to Israel is on March 8. Dubai flights are cancelled through to March 4.
An Air Canada flight to Dubai from Pearson turned around and returned to Toronto Saturday morning, he said.
Dubai International Airport on Sunday came under a reported attack by Iran, which is apparently targeting travel hubs in places it deems friendly to the U.S. Airports in Abu Dhabi and Kuwait were also hit.
According to Cirium, 40 per cent of the 3,990 flights to nine airports in the region were cancelled on Sunday.
The ripple effects were felt far beyond the Middle East, with tens of thousands of passengers stranded as far as Bali, Kathmandu and Frankfurt.
Israel said it had launched another wave of strikes on Iran on Sunday while loud blasts were heard for a second day near Dubai and over Doha after Iran launched retaliatory air attacks on the neighbouring Gulf states.
Emirates, the world’s largest international carrier, said it had suspended all operations to and from its Dubai megahub until Monday.
Qatar Airways, which has suspended all operations, said it would provide a further update on Monday and Germany’s Lufthansa extended its suspension of flights to the region to March 8.
Airspace over Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Israel, Bahrain, the UAE and Qatar remained virtually empty, maps by Flightradar24 showed on Sunday.
The flight-tracking service said that a new pilot bulletin had extended the closure of Iranian airspace until at least 8:30 a.m. GMT on March 3, though regional airline sources said there was no certainty how long the conflict-related turmoil would continue.
The region and its airlines have become used to travel disruption over the past few years, but such a prolonged closure of the skies – more than 24 hours – and the shutdown of all three major Gulf transit hubs is unprecedented, analysts said.
The Gulf is also a major intersection for air cargo, putting further pressure on trade lanes on top of the disruption at sea.
Airline executives have said that crew and pilots are scattered across the world, complicating the complex process of resuming flights when airspace reopens.
Carriers around the world also face higher oil prices after Brent crude jumped by 10 per cent to US$80 a barrel over the counter on Sunday. Analysts predicted prices could climb as high as US$100.
Dubai and neighbouring Doha sit at the crossroads of east-west air travel, funneling long-haul traffic between Europe and Asia through tightly scheduled networks of connecting flights. With those hubs idle, aircraft and crews remained stranded out of position, disrupting airline schedules worldwide.
The sheer volume of people affected and the complexity of the logistics make it a challenge, London-based aviation analyst John Strickland said.
“It is not only customers, it is the crews and aircraft all over place,” he said.
Airlines across Europe, Asia and the Middle East cancelled or rerouted flights to avoid closed or restricted airspace, lengthening journeys and driving up fuel costs.
The disruption has been intensified by the loss flight paths over Iranian and Iraq which had grown more important since the Russia-Ukraine war forced airlines to avoid both countries’ airspace.
The Middle East airspace closures were squeezing airlines into narrower corridors, with fighting between Pakistan and Afghanistan adding a further risk, said Ian Petchenik, communications director at Flightradar24.
Highlighting the scale of the disruption, Air India cancelled its flights on Sunday departing from Delhi, Mumbai and Amritsar for major cities in Europe and North America.
With reports from Reuters