Air France: The Iranian attack on Israel triggers chaos for airlines with dozens of flight diversions

Tens of thousands of airline passengers are waking up where they didn’t expect after airlines diverted many planes in response to Iran’s overnight attack on Israel.

The normal flight path from Europe and North America to the Gulf and South Asia is to fly to the southeast corner of Turkey and then fly southeast over Iran or Iraq.

But when missiles were fired from Iran over Iraq towards Israel, the airspace of both countries was closed. The skies over Jordan were also temporarily closed.

The most extreme reaction was Air France flight AF218 from Paris to Mumbai, where passengers endured an eight-hour journey to nowhere.

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The Airbus A350 departed from Charles de Gaulle Airport four hours late. When it reached Iraq, the country’s airspace was suddenly closed. The aircraft turned around and finally arrived back in Paris CDG against a headwind exactly 12 hours after the original departure time.

Among the flights that did not return to base, traffic was diverted south over Egypt and flew over central Saudi Arabia. The longer routes meant that many aircraft that were already in the air had to be refueled.

As a result, many planes reached their destination two to three hours late – and flight connections were interrupted.

Emirates and Qatar Airways were the worst-hit airlines, diverting most evening night flights from Western Europe. Both airlines rely on fast connections, with the majority of arriving passengers transferring to departing flights.

Kara Godfrey, deputy travel editor at The sunwas hoping to catch a connecting flight to Perth in Dubai. She posted on The 7th. Please send help.”

British Airways flight BA107 from London Heathrow to Dubai turned around north of the Iraqi-Turkish border and was diverted to Larnaca in Cyprus. The Boeing 777 finally arrived over four hours late.

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BA’s return flight from Sydney and Singapore to Heathrow, one of the longest non-stop routes, landed in Dubai to refuel before continuing to London, where it arrived two hours late.

A British Airways spokesperson said: “Safety is always our top priority and we continually assess and adapt our operations accordingly.”

An Etihad flight from Heathrow was diverted to Riyadh en route to Abu Dhabi and arrived four hours late. Wizz Air also offered a number of diversions to the UAE capital.

These were the diversions of the main Gulf airlines:

Emirates flights to Dubai

Qatar Airways flights to Doha

Under passenger rights, travelers on flights originating in the United Kingdom or the European Union are entitled to be flown to their final destination as quickly as possible and to be adequately provided with hotels and meals until the flight.

However, you will not receive any cash compensation as the cause was beyond the airlines’ control.