Air India has confirmed that it would be suspending all flights to and from Birmingham Airport from Saturday due to “extraordinary circumstances” involving the closure of Pakistan’s airspace.
Air India said that its daily flights to India from London Heathrow remain unaffected as the New Delhi and Amritsar services in and out of Birmingham will be grounded until further updates.
“The flight cancellation is due to extraordinary circumstances, namely closure of Pakistan airspace and resultant impact which is beyond the control of Air India,” said Debashis Golder, Regional Manager – UK and Europe.
“In fact, besides Birmingham, many other flights in our network have been cancelled, combined or being operated with restricted payload, to reduce impact on passenger travel to the minimum,” he said.
Pakistan airspace remains closed since Indian airstrikes on a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist camp in the country . The airport expressed its disappointment at the suspension of AI113 Delhi-Birmingham, AI114 Birmingham-Delhi, AI117 Delhi-Amritsar-Birmingham, and AI118 Birmingham-Amritsar-Delhi and said it was working with the airline to restore the schedule.
“Passengers that are already booked on Air India flights from Birmingham will be contacted by the airline to re-book or to gain a refund. We are working closely with Air India to restore these flights to Birmingham Airport’s schedule as soon as possible,” airport spokesperson said. Among the other routes affected by Friday’s announcement include Air India’s Delhi-Madrid and Madrid-Delhi flights.
