KOCHI: Amid the escalating Iran-Israel conflict, several airlines are cancelling or diverting flights by avoiding airspaces in West Asia, which has severely impacted tourism to Central Asian countries, especially Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Georgia.
This has severely affected travel operators in Kerala who have seen a nearly 30% decline in inbound and outbound tourism linked to these countries. Many find themselves trapped between airline operators and travellers, having been forced to reimburse cancelled tours while still awaiting refunds from airlines.
Meanwhile, travellers have been advised to prepare themselves for possible delays and unscheduled layovers in the wake of reduced connectivity on key routes and sudden cancellation of flights.
“A group that had travelled to Russia had its scheduled five-day visit extended to eight days, after the scheduled Air Arabia return flight was cancelled. The airline could accommodate them only on the third day,” Anu Sebastian, general manager of Kochi-based Gooout Tour & Travels Pvt Ltd, told TNIE.
Budget airlines like Air Arabia Abu Dhabi have cancelled flights through West Asian airspace from June 20 to 30, further compounding travel woes.
“We initially booked seats on an Air Arabia Abu Dhabi flight as part of plans to visit Georgia. However, we received a message that the flight was cancelled. Without informing us, the airline issued a credit voucher for the cost of our tickets, which meant that we could only use that for travel on that airline.
We contacted customer care and after much persuasion they agreed to arrange seats on a flight via Sharjah. We had to bear an additional expense of Rs 15,000,” said Abhishek Harikumar, a native of Alappuzha.
First scheduled to fly on June 21, the family has now been assigned seats on a flight from Kochi on June 22.
“We are scheduled to return from Tbilisi on June 28. We were able to get confirmed tickets at the last minute, but now we are going to miss the connecting flight from Abu Dhabi, which is having a two-and-a-half hour gap.
While the normal flight time from Tbilisi to Abu Dhabi is three hours, the airline informed us that the flight is diverted to avoid the airspace in the conflict region and will take 5 to 5.30 hours of flying time. We are yet to get the ticket from Abu Dhabi to Kochi,” he added. The family planned the trip several months in advance.
According to flight tracking website FlightRadar24, the commercial flights are avoiding the airspace over Iran, Iraq, Syria and Israel and are taking the diverted routes via the Caspian Sea (north) or Egypt and Saudi Arabia (south). The West Asian tensions have also impacted inbound tourism. Meanwhile, many travellers are rescheduling their trips and now preferring domestic destinations in south India.