SIA, Scoot, and many international airlines have rerouted their air travel routes to avoid Afghanistan after the Taliban gained control of the capital in Afghanistan.
Usually, SIA and Scoot flights would fly pass Afghanistan to and from Europe.
However, all these have changed since 15 August 2021 this year.
First rerouted flight
SQ319, SIA’s flight from London to Singapore was the first to be rerouted.
Normally, it flies pass Afghanistan around the middle of the journey as seen in the map below
However a check on 15 August shows that SIA has actually rerouted its journey, taking an hour more than usual to arrive in Singapore.
Second rerouted flight
SQ308, SIA’s flight from Singapore to London was also noticed to have rerouted its journey away from Afghanistan.
They took the more southern road instead of flying straight over Afghanistan, opting to go pass Saudi Arabia and Egypt before flying straight North up to London.
SIA was also quoted by Channel News Asia that they are “currently not traversing” airspace over Afghanistan and they will monitor and review the situation closely and make appropriate adjustments to the flight path.
Many international airlines also seen avoiding Afghan airspace
A further check on the flight path pattern on most international airlines also have shown that they are all avoiding Afghan airspace.
You can see that they are all rerouting and choosing to fly pass neighbouring Pakistan and Iran instead, and there is a “big hole” in the picture over Afghanistan.
Reason airlines are avoiding Afghan airspace
In view of the ongoing chaos and turmoil ongoing in Afghanistan where the Taliban has taken over city after city, it is no doubt that commercial aircrafts will try to avoid airspaces of war-torn countries.
These comes after previous cases of commercial aircrafts being shot down after flying over areas with conflict ongoing.
For example in 2014, Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 passengers on boad.
More recently in 2020, a Ukrainian International Airlines plane flying over Iran was shot down by missiles. All 176 on board passed away tragically.
Image source: Flightradar24.com and Google Maps