India-Pakistan conflict disrupts commercial flights

Several Asian airlines said they were re-routing or cancelling flights to and from Europe because of the fighting between India and Pakistan.

India attacked Pakistan and Pakistani Kashmir, and Pakistan said it had shot down five Indian fighter jets.

More than two dozen international flights were diverted to avoid Pakistan’s airspace. By Wednesday morning local time, airlines had cancelled 52 flights to or from Pakistan, according to FlightRadar24.

57 international flights were operating in Pakistan’s airspace when India struck, according to a Pakistan army spokesperson.

Domestic flights in both countries were also disrupted. India shut several airports, and as a result, flights belonging to Air India, IndiGo, SpiceJet, and Akasa Air were cancelled. IndiGo shares were down 1.8%.

Images from the flight tracking website showed that the northwestern airspace of India and Pakistan was nearly free of civilian aircraft, barring a few flights.

The changing airline schedules are set to further complicate operations in the Middle East and South Asia regions for carriers, who are already grappling with a fallout from conflicts in the two areas.