The events in Afghanistan is taking a huge toll on humanity and a part of it affects Aviation. Not only Aviation in the region is being affected, but flights that pass over it too! In this article, you will find out more regarding the effect of the Taliban’s takeover on aviation.
Longer Flights
Since the end of July, the FAA prohibited aircraft flying below FL260 in Afghan airspace, due to the developing situation in the region.
Airlines’ fear for their passengers’ safety and have decided to re-route their flights away from Afghanistan’s airspace.
As a result, this leads to longer flight durations, which means extra fuel being needed, which inevitably costs more money. Owing to that, there might be a slight increase in your flight ticket. For instance, flights from Europe to Asia, such as London to Singapore, usually fly above Afghanistan or the countries surrounding it. Most likely, those flights will be re-routed around the region. According to Air France, flights such as Paris to Bangkok have been affected by this re-route.
As soon as the Afghanistan airspace was deemed unsafe, an Air India flight that was travelling from Chicago to New Delhi immediately turned away from the area and diverted to Sharjah for more fuel. This was to ensure that there was enough fuel to fly to New Delhi without entering Afghanistan airspace.
However, flights can still pass above Afghanistan but must either be a Military aircraft or be operating above 26,000 feet.
Crammed Flights
As evacuation flights come to an end, the amount of passengers inside an aircraft departing from Kabul has increased. Some of the aircraft do not have any seats and carries hundreds of passengers on one evacuation flight. This is of course very unsafe by civil aviation standards, but is a necessary measure to ensure the evacuation of the citizens.
Have you been effected by re-routed flights or longer flight durations, due to the events of recent weeks? Leave your comments below.
