IndiGo, Air India temporarily suspend flights to the Middle East

Following the US-Israel strikes on Iran, multiple airlines—including IndiGo and Air India—cancelled or suspended flights to the region. A slew of global air carriers, such as Air France, KLM, Japan Airlines, and Norwegian Air, have so far cancelled scheduled flights to the Middle East, especially to Tel Aviv, on Saturday.

IndiGo took to X to announce that it temporarily suspended flights to and from the Middle East, stating, "In view of evolving airspace restrictions around Iran and the Middle East, all flights to and from the Middle East are cancelled till 0000 hrs".

As per reports, the suspension covers flights to and from many Middle East airports such as Dubai, Jeddah, Doha, Abu Dhabi, Dammam, Bahrain, Sharjah, Kuwait, and Ras Al-Khaimah.

"Our teams are continuously monitoring the evolving situation and recalibrating operations to minimise disruption as much as possible," IndiGo added.

Air India suspended all west-bound international flights till further notice, it stated, after the Delhi-Tel Aviv flight was diverted to Mumbai due to the closure of Israeli airspace.

 "We continue to closely monitor the evolving situation and will proactively review and adjust our operations as necessary," Air India said in a statement.

Scandinavian Airlines suspended flights to Tel Aviv from Copenhagen on Saturday, while Turkish Airlines cancelled flights to Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, the UAE and Oman on Saturday and flights to Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Jordan until March 2.

The closure of Qatar airspace also led to Qatar Airways suspending flights to and from Doha until further notice.