Middle East airspace closures trigger flight disruptions at Hyderabad airport; 48 cancellations on March 1

On Sunday morning, as passengers hurried towards the departures entrance at Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA), one family sat quietly on a bench along the median, waiting. Rehman was watching the flight information screens closely. His parents had boarded a Saudia Airlines flight to Jeddah around 20 minutes earlier, but he was in no rush to leave. “With the present airspace restrictions in the Middle East, I am just waiting until the aircraft takes off. Then I will go home,” he said.

While the situation at Hyderabad airport largely remained normal, the uncertainty followed sweeping airspace restrictions imposed across the Middle East after the United States and Israel launched a major attack on Iran on February 28. Iran retaliated soon after, triggering a chain reaction that saw multiple countries closing or restricting their airspace. Iran and Israel shut their airspace early in the day with Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Iraq, Oman and Syria following in quick succession.