United Airlines (UA, Chicago O'Hare) has suspended its New York Newark-Delhi International route through at least April 19, 2019, due to the combination of strong seasonal winds and the closure of Pakistan airspace extending the duration of the flights.
The carrier was operating its daily service from Newark to Delhi using B777-200(ER) aircraft. After Pakistan had closed its airspace to overflights on February 27 amid growing tensions with India over the disputed boundary in Kashmir, United was operating the flight with a refuelling stop initially at Frankfurt International and later in Munich, Flightradar24 ADS-B data shows.
United will continue to operate from Newark to Mumbai International as planned. The daily service operated with B777-300(ER) was flying via Frankfurt until April 6, until Pakistan re-opened one of 11 westbound routes to overflying traffic from India.
The airline is the only US carrier flying to India.
Meanwhile, Air Astana (KC, Astana Nursultan Nazarbayev) also announced it will suspend its services to Delhi from Astana Nursultan Nazarbayev and Almaty International from April 11 through at least April 30. The Kazakh flag carrier currently operates to the Indian capital daily from Almaty and 2x weekly from Nur-Sultan. Flights are operated with A320 or A321 equipment and currently last about 3 hours longer than the scheduled duration due to the need to avoid Pakistani airspace.
The Hindu has reported that both SpiceJet (SG, Delhi International) and Air India (AI, Delhi International) cancelled their respective flights from Delhi to Kabul although Ariana Afghan Airlines (FG, Kabul) and Kam Air (RQ, Kabul) continue to operate their services.
