I find the subject of flight path detours and restrictions due to geopolitical instability interesting. What such detours do you know of beyond what I have below:
- Flights to/from Israel, especially with El Al, not being able to fly over many Arab countries
- QR flights not able to fly over Saudi Arabian and UAE airspace
- More recently the Pakistani airspace being closed
- Until about a year ago, inability for flights to cross from Ethiopian into Eritrean airspace and vice versa which saw many Ethiopian Airlines flights circumventing Eritrean airspace
- Decades ago South African Airways flights were barred over most African airspace, creating some interesting paths

Flights from Taiwan to Europe used to go via BKK as they were not allowed over Chinese airspace.

Flights to/from Israel often have large detours.

GA traffic still can’t overfly China to land at TPE. A friend just went from LOS to TPE with a stop in the Maldives to avoid China. Overflight would have made it a non-stop.

GF

Eva has to do LHR-BKK CDG-BKK AMS-BKK and VIE-BKK

berari wrote:

- More recently the Pakistani airspace being closed

I was on one of those, but with the fortunate side-effect of being able to enjoy seat 1A in a LH 748 for a few minutes more while we diverted around Pakistani airspace.

Planes4you wrote:

Eva has to do LHR-BKK CDG-BKK AMS-BKK and VIE-BKK

CDG-BKK doesn't exist on BR and VIE also has direct TPE flights. More about number of pax (and number of premium pax) rather than capability.

Michael

I fly for an airline based in the ME, whenever we fly to Beirut we fly along the northern border of Saudi before skirting the edge of Jordan/Israel at Aqaba/Eilat before turning north over Egyptian airspace and then vice versa on the return, we even have a company NOTAM saying be careful in the area since the aircraft has a tendency to try and overfly one of the points resulting in it turning early and entering Israeli airspace.
When the Pakistani airspace was closed, we had very very long detours around, to the point where our flights to Northern India, Nepal and Bangladesh were almost an hour longer each way and went all the way South to Bombay and then turning up North, we even had some routes that became ETOPS which weren't before, from memory the shortest ETOPS stage on one of those flights was less than 1 minute! Thankfully that situation is resolved now so no need for the long reroute or the extra hassle that comes with an ETOPS flight

A few years ago many airlines avoided flying over east Ukraine, specially after MH17. Tensions between Russia and Ukraine are still there.

LATAM's GRU-TLV is an example. The flight goes straight to Europe and reach Israel through the Mediterranean Sea.

PatrickZ80 wrote:

A few years ago many airlines avoided flying over east Ukraine, specially after MH17. Tensions between Russia and Ukraine are still there.

Eastern Ukraine is still NOTAM closed to this day.

Think how much extra CO2 these avoidance routings make plane emit... how sad we cant overcome these problems, cause a good chunk of the issues mentioned do not actually pose a threat to airliners.

We are all aware of the rising political temperature between Iran and some Western countries (USA and UK mainly), the tit-for-tat boarding of tankers, the USA strengthening its naval assets in the region. I am sure that there are a few worried airline CEOs in the region wondering about the effect on transit pax, and if the situation gets much worse, the likelihood of the region's airspace being closed

If I needed to go to SE Asia from Europe, my first choice used to be Etihad; today I would be reluctant to book such a flight as when the date came to actually fly, it might be that the ME3 and the other regional carriers are seriously affected by airspace closures. My immediate alternative options from Brussels include Thai that would reroute to avoid the area, Cathay Pacific that flies over Russia to HKG completely avoiding the Middle East, Aeroflot, Finnair.

Syria and North Korea.

Venezuela is another one to add to the list, is not well defined, because some airlines are still over-flying Venezuela. But:

- Avianca decided not to fly and not to overfly Venezuela, because of safety issues in the country. (we all know what is happening in Venezuela)
- FAA stated that airlines from the United States or airplanes with N registration are not allowed to fly to Venezuela and to overfly Venezuela.

PatrickZ80 wrote:

A few years ago many airlines avoided flying over east Ukraine, specially after MH17. Tensions between Russia and Ukraine are still there.

Majority of carriers avoid all of Ukrainian airspace including in the west.

b747400erf wrote:

PatrickZ80 wrote:

A few years ago many airlines avoided flying over east Ukraine, specially after MH17. Tensions between Russia and Ukraine are still there.

Majority of carriers avoid all of Ukrainian airspace including in the west.

That includes Russian airlines. I've noticed many flights From Russia to resort cities in Bulgaria and Turkey flying over south-eastern Slovakia that shouldn't even come close to the area. Flying from SVO to AYT over Slovakia is quite a detour.

After South Korea fired warning shots today at Russian (military) aircraft, will that lead to airspace closures for each other’s civil flights?

I flew many times to and from Seoul and always observed flight paths would avoid North Korea, even though I have recently read here that the North Korean airspace is not closed to other aircraft. I feel bad when I think about all the extra flight time, fuel burn and CO2 emission just on that detour.

I also a did number of flights between Europe and Dubai/Doha; flights would always avoid Iraki airspace.

LatinAirliner wrote:

FAA stated that airlines from the United States or airplanes with N registration are not allowed to fly to Venezuela and to overfly Venezuela.

The restrictions do not apply to US registered aircraft operated by or for a foreign carrier, although that is a scenario that would typically apply to cargo flights.

Also overflights are banned below 26,000 ft only. There are no restrictions above.

Flew QR DFW-DOH-CPT recently. The most notable was the flight to CPT. We went northeast around UAE/OMAN through the Strait of Hormuz then back west and south toward Africa. Not sure how much time this added, but direct would have been overlying Saudi Arabia and Yemen. I got to enjoy QR's business product a little longer. Not mad about it.

There's always been avoidance of certain areas of Syria when I've flown to the Middle East from the US. I think it varies from any point in time where that is, however. And it depends on the airline. Turkish, for example, was overflying Syria, while Lufthansa was not a few years ago. (Same trip)

any flight from jhb to Frankfurt flies around Libya on the west side

I think Air India still have a fuel stop at ARN for one of their US bound flights from India due to avoiding Pakistanian airspace.

One of the most famous ones was Northwest Airlines (NW), which in 1992 reduced the DTW NRT flight from 13:30 hours to 12 hours or so when the Russian government granted the possibility to overflow Siberia.

Thunderboltdrgn wrote:

I think Air India still have a fuel stop at ARN for one of their US bound flights from India due to avoiding Pakistanian airspace.

Pakistan airspace opened back up last week

Another interesting route is BEY to AMM. In a straight line, 128nm. If the flight was direct it would take what? 20 minutes?

But instead, flights leave into the sea, then towards the south of Israel and later north into Jordan. Average flight time? 1:23 minutes.

https://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/rj404



BR,
744lover

744lover wrote:

Another interesting route is BEY to AMM. In a straight line, 128nm. If the flight was direct it would take what? 20 minutes?

But instead, flights leave into the sea, then towards the south of Israel and later north into Jordan. Average flight time? 1:23 minutes.

https://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/rj404



BR,
744lover

Jordan is allied with the west and so will avoid Syrian airspace.

berari wrote:

I find the subject of flight path detours and restrictions due to geopolitical instability interesting. What such detours do you know of beyond what I have below:
- Flights to/from Israel, especially with El Al, not being able to fly over many Arab countries
- QR flights not able to fly over Saudi Arabian and UAE airspace
- More recently the Pakistani airspace being closed
- Until about a year ago, inability for flights to cross from Ethiopian into Eritrean airspace and vice versa which saw many Ethiopian Airlines flights circumventing Eritrean airspace
- Decades ago South African Airways flights were barred over most African airspace, creating some interesting paths

Probably useless for some of you, but interesting for others:

https://safeairspace.net