Following India's airstrike against Pakistan, airlines have announced the cancellation of flights to about 20 airports, which include Srinagar, Jammu, Leh, Amritsar, Chandigarh, Shimla, Kullu, Dharamshala, Bikaner, Jodhpur, Bhuj, Kishangarh, Gwalior, Kandla, Adampur, Hindon, Bareilly and Jamnagar.
These include airports which are operated by the Indian Air Force and have a civil enclave, or are closer to the border areas or have air routes which could be in areas which are corridors for military aircraft movement. This ensures that if and when there is a need to scramble military assets, civilians and civilian airliners are out of harm and there is full focus on the task at hand.
Not having civilian movements also ensures that the active movements are not tracked by human intelligence by passengers flying out of these airports. While there remains a rule to not photograph at defence airports, these are not enforced strictly and it matters a lot in the current times.
The closure of airfields is currently announced until May 10 morning. Data obtained from Cirium, an aviation analytics company, shows that a little over 500 departures would be impacted from these airports. A similar number of arrivals into these airports will also be impacted. The total impact is less than 8 percent of total domestic flights in India.
The Chandigarh airport will see the maximum impact with 123 departures, while Srinagar will have an impact of 99 departures and Amritsar will have 90 departures. Passengers of IndiGo will be the most affected since 267 IndiGo flights are impacted, followed by Air India (102 flights) and Air India Express (74).
Some of these airports, like Hindon, have alternates in Delhi, while places like Chandigarh are well connected by road. Passengers who are stuck at other places may be understandably worried in these current times and should check with the airline on the next steps. Airlines are offering waivers for cancellation charges and a change in ticket without penalty in such cases.
Passengers should ensure that their contact details are updated with the airlines to get immediate updates as and when the airline makes any changes. Airlines are also offering changes to the tickets, giving passengers the ability to explore options from the nearest airport which is operational. With passenger count thinning to Srinagar and other areas, which passengers knew could be likely impacted by the ongoing tensions, flights are likely to have space to accommodate passengers. The immediate rush post-Pahalgam attack has been taken care of. As of now, there is no advisory from the government to avoid specific areas for travel.
For a passenger, it is important to monitor social media announcements, emails, messages, and WhatsApp communication from the airline and updates from reliable media and authorities to understand what is happening.