Due to Pakistan airspace closure, flight operations are severely affected especially Delhi – USA and Delhi – Europe. Due to this, United had to operate its daily Delhi – Newark flights and daily Mumbai-Newark with a stop at Frankfurt/Munich to start. Then came the Delhi Flight suspension.
On April 5, 2019, United decided to temporarily suspend its Delhi-Newark flight till April 17, 2019, in anticipation that the Pakistan airspace would open up by then. But due to prolonged delay, United pushed back the relaunch to July 2019.
Similarly, Air Canada, which operated a daily Toronto – Delhi and Vancouver – Delhi flight with Boeing 787-9 aircraft, suspended its daily AC 42/43 Toronto-Delhi flight from June 15, 2019, to July 31, 2019 (Toronto departure).
However, today, on May 30, 2019, Pakistan CAA decided they would still not open their airspace to commercial flights not originating or terminating in Pakistan, and extended the closure to June 15, 2019.
United has now confirmed flights on Delhi-Newark route will resume only from August 1, 2019. Till then, the only non-stop flight to India on United will be Mumbai-Newark on-board a 777-300ER.
On the other hand, Air Canada has also extended the closure of the Delhi route from Toronto (AC42/43), and will not be operating the flight till August 29, 2019 (Toronto departure).
Are you affected by the suspension of UA 82/83 Delhi – Newark or AC42/43 Toronto – Delhi flights?
If LFAL has any contacts at MoCA, MEA, Pak embassy, etc., now is the time to send a message that the travelling public wants the airspace reopened!