PIA suspends flights to Gulf states as ME tensions rise

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Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) temporarily suspended its fixed flights to the Gulf countries on Monday following Iran’s retaliation at the US base in Qatar in the Middle East.

A spokesman said that the national flag carrier announced the suspension of flights to Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Dubai during a growing military situation.

Several Gulf countries were alerted to Iran’s missile attacks at a US military base in Qatar in response to US airstrikes in Tehran’s nuclear sites.

“Flights will resume after the situation returns to normal,” the statement said. The spokesperson asked passengers who are scheduled to travel through different flights to stay updated about their flight status by contacting the PIA call center.

It added that the airline’s reservation department started transferring passengers’ bookings to alternate flights.

Prior to the Iranian invasion, Qatar today announced that it had temporarily closed its airspace, hours later, when US and British authorities contacted their citizens to seek shelter until further information.

Qatar hosts the Middle East’s largest US base, Aldid Air Base, which serves as a forward headquarters for the US Central Command, and has about 10,000 10,000 troops.

There is a home for several US military bases in the Gulf.

After the Iranian invasion of Qatar, Bahrain also temporarily closed its airspace.

Bahrain is the home of the US Navy’s fifth fleet headquarters, which includes parts of the Gulf, the Pacific, the Arabian Sea and parts of the Indian Ocean.

Meanwhile, Kuwait temporarily closed its airspace until further notification

He said in a post on X that Kuwait Airways also suspended the departure of flight from the country due to regional developments.

According to Reuters, Abu Dhabi -based alliance Airways says it is restoring several flights in response to airspace restrictions in some parts of the Middle East and June 24.

According to a post on the X on the X on Monday through the Air Traffic tracking website FLIGTRADAR24, the airspace of the United Arab Emirates was also closed on the basis of flight routes and air traffic control audio.

Dubai airports did not comment and sent Reuters to the Dubai Government Media Office.

According to a source and data from Flagradar 24, three Air India flights leading to Doha due to airspace closures were diverted to other airports. Statistics show that up to 150 flights were scheduled inside and outside Doha on Monday.

IAG’s Spanish airline Iberia ended plans to resume flights to Doha on Tuesday.

Airlines face fresh stirring

The airlines were late on Monday, following the Iranian invasion of the US military base in Doha, after temporarily shutting down its countries’ airspace, which is the latest alert in the Middle East.

Flightradar24 did not practically show air traffic in the Gulf and about 1735 GMT in Qatar and Bahrain, which had a busy place full of commercial flights earlier this day.

The Israeli Iranian conflict has already eliminated major flight routes, usually airspace with Iran and Iraq to the Mediterranean, with large -scale trade air traffic, since Israel began a strike on Iran on June 13.

Airlines have been diverted, canceled and delayed due to airspace closure and safety concerns.

The controversial zones in airplanes are a growing operational burden, as air strikes causes trafficking of commercial air traffic accidental or deliberate bullets.

The Russian and Ukrainian airspace also became an important route to flights between Middle East Europe and Asia, following the years of war on the airlines. Over the past 10 days, during missiles and air strikes, airlines have departed north of the Caspian north or south to Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

Earlier today, the Iranian National Security Council confirmed that it attacked a major US military base in Qatar on Monday during a US strike retaliation on its nuclear facilities, adding that its response did not “threaten” its Gulf neighbor.

The council said in a statement, “In response to the US offensive and abusive action against Iran’s nuclear locations and facilities, a few hours ago, the powerful armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran said in a statement from Qatar.”

It added that the number of missiles used was “the same as the number of bombs that the United States used to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities”.

He added, “This action is not a threat to our friendly and brotherly country of Qatar.”

According to Al Jazeera, in response to this, Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Al -Sanisari spoke of the Iranian attack on the aldid base “Qatar’s sovereignty and airspace and a violation of the UN Charter.”

“We, in the state of Qatar, reserve our right to directly respond directly to this obvious aggression,” Al -Ansari said in a statement.

He added that Qatari Air Defense thwarted the attack and successfully fought Iranian missiles.

– With additional input from Reuters, AFP