SUSPENSIONS
Earlier in the day, airlines had been weighing how long to suspend flights. Finnair was the first to announce a prolonged suspension of flights to Doha, with cancellations until Jun 30.
Leading Asian carrier Singapore Airlines planned to cancel flights to Dubai through Tuesday. Air France KLM, IAG-owned Iberia and British Airways, and Kazakhstan’s Air Astana all cancelled flights to either Doha or Dubai both on Sunday and Monday.
Air France also cancelled flights to Riyadh and said it would suspend flights to and from Beirut, Lebanon until Wednesday.
In the days before the US strikes, American Airlines suspended flights to Qatar, and United Airlines and Air Canada did the same with flights to Dubai. They have yet to resume.
Proliferating conflict zones are an increasing operational burden on airlines as aerial attacks raise worries about accidental or deliberate shoot-downs of commercial air traffic.
GPS interference around political hotspots, where ground-based GPS systems “spoof” or broadcast incorrect positions which can send commercial airliners off course, are also a growing issue for commercial aviation. SkAI, a Swiss company that runs a GPS disruption map, said late on Sunday it had observed more than 150 aircraft spoofed over the Persian Gulf in 24 hours.
