Flight disruptions to continue, although airspaces in West Asia reopened

Though Qatar and some West Asian countries reopened their airspaces after closing them by Monday (June 23, 2025) night in anticipation of attacks by Iran on a U.S. air base near Doha, thousands of passengers from Kerala continued to be hit by the impact of the flight disruptions.

In Thiruvananthapuram, soon after the airspaces were reopened, Emirates (Thiruvananthapuram-Dubai), Etihad (Thiruvananthapuram-Abu Dhabi), and Air Arabia (Thiruvananthapuram-Sharjah) flights landed and departed early in the morning. However, Air India Express flights to Muscat, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Dammam, and Dubai from Thiruvananthapuram; Qatar Airways flights to Doha, Kuwait Airways flight to Kuwait and IndiGo flight to Sharjah were cancelled in the early morning, inconveniencing the passengers who reached the airport.

Additional seating arrangements for passengers and counters for airlines are being set up in Terminal 2 of the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport to handle the situation. Further, additional staff were also deployed in the terminal for support, said airport authorities. The flights to West Asian destinations from three other airports in Kerala were also severely impacted after several West Asian nations closed their countries’ airspace temporarily.

Although the airspaces are reopened, the flight service disruptions, including delays and cancellations, are likely to persist on Tuesday due to the cascading impact of the cancellations on other services, said airline sources.