“Due to the dynamic nature of the situation, we have begun routing affected flights around Afghanistan airspace,” a United Airlines spokesperson said in a statement early Monday morning local time, adding that it would continue to work closely with authorities to “determine how we continue service to markets impacted.”
The changes affect United flights to India.
Virgin Atlantic also said that it would reroute its upcoming services to India and Pakistan after “the latest situation reports in Afghanistan.” Starting Monday, the carrier’s flights to the cities of Islamabad, Lahore, Mumbai and New Delhi, which usually fly over Afghanistan, will be diverted to avoid the country’s airspace.
“The health, safety and security of our customers and people always comes first,” a Virgin Atlantic spokesperson said in a statement.
“As a result, the flight time to India and other destinations will be extended by up to one hour,” a spokesperson told CNN Business.
Cut off
Several carriers had already announced plans to cancel services. Both Emirates and Flydubai — a government-owned budget carrier — said that services to and from Kabul had been suspended.
There were scenes of pandemonium early Monday at the airport, where hundreds of people flooded the tarmac and large crowds were seen attempting to board aircraft.
Air India was one of the few remaining airlines still running a regular service to and from Kabul prior to the announcement of the suspension of all commercial flights.
Hours earlier, the carrier had said that it was trying to operate its scheduled flights for Afghanistan, “situation permitting.” But an Air India flight scheduled to depart to Kabul at 12:30 p.m. local time, or 3 am E.T. on Monday, was canceled just shortly before takeoff.
The plane was due to leave from New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport and pick up passengers in Kabul before returning to India, an airline spokesperson told CNN Business.
— CNN’s Manveena Suri, Angus Watson and Jonny Hallam contributed to this report.