Very recently, we wrote about the effect of the Middle East conflicts on IndiGo, whose tie-up with Norse Airways to operate IndiGo’s 787-9 flights to Europe was stalled for a week due to an EASA advisory. On Sunday, March 8, IndiGo restarted operations with a Mumbai-London Heathrow flight after a week without operating these flights.
IndiGo’s Flight to Nowhere
IndiGo’s fledgling long-haul operations encountered another dramatic disruption today when one of its Europe-bound flights ended up becoming a “flight to nowhere.”
IndiGo’s 6E33, scheduled to operate between Delhi and Manchester, departed as planned but was forced to turn back mid-air after airspace restrictions suddenly made the route unviable, eventually returning to its origin airport without even entering European airspace.
The incident occurred because Eritrea, of which I was unaware until now (pardon my geographical ignorance), did not allow IndiGo to cross its airspace. This happened because Eritrea’s ATC apparently got confused when a request was made with an IndiGo callsign; however, the plane registration was with Norse Atlantic Airways. Perhaps they did not keep up with the news or did not know how damp leases work. I wonder how Hi-Fly of Malta would make do if they had to.
Here is the text sent to the plane, courtesy AnalyticFlying.
Unfortunately, this meant the plane had to turn around, and, given that the Middle East Airspace is off-limits due to an EASA advisory at the moment, the airline had to fly the plane back to India and bring it back to Delhi.
And this was not the only time it happened; the Eritreans did it again when the London Heathrow-Mumbai flight diverted to Cairo because of the same kind of denial of their airspace.
Here is what IndiGo had to say about 6E33, which came back to Delhi.
Due to the evolving situation in and around the Middle East, some of our flights may take longer routes or experience diversions. Our flight 6E 033 operating from Delhi to Manchester had to return to its origin due to last-minute airspace restrictions, owing to the ongoing situation in West Asia. We are working with the relevant authorities to explore the possibilities of resuming the journey. As always, safety and security of our customers, crew and aircraft is of utmost importance to us.
The whole disruption is pretty unfortunate for the passengers and the airline, but the airline might also be on the hook for compensation to passengers under UK261, the English equivalent of EU261. This mostly works for the passengers of 6E2 who were on their way from London Heathrow to Mumbai, but not the ones on their way from Delhi to Manchester.
Bottomline
IndiGo faced two diversions today: one was a return to the origin of its Delhi – Manchester flight from halfway, and the other was a diversion to Cairo because Eritrea won’t grant permission for both flights to operate in its airspace. In both cases, the restriction apparently applied because the plane was a Norse Atlantic Airways aircraft and IndiGo was the one doing the paperwork, requesting the clearance under their own name.
What do you make of the impact of the conflicts on IndiGo’s Europe Strategy? Should they continue to try to reschedule or cancel these flights until the situation resolves itself?
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