Flights from India to Europe and North America are taking up to 4 extra hours with fuel stops as airlines avoid Pakistan (2025)

Flights by Indian carriers, including Air India, IndiGo, and SpiceJet, are spending hours of extra timecircumventing closed Pakistani airspaceamid rising tensions between India and Pakistan.

The carriers could previously fly west across neighboring Pakistan to connect to countries in Europe, North America, the Middle East, and Central Asia.

Now, they must reroute around Pakistan's bordersafter the government closed its airspace to Indian airlines on Thursday following India's response to an attack in Indian-administered Kashmir two days earlier.

Air India's Delhi hub is most affected, as planes must detour south around Pakistan and across the Arabian Sea before returning north. With more miles to cover, some flights to North America must stop in Europe to fuel up before finishing their treks across the Atlantic, adding up to four hours to their passengers' journeys.

An Air India spokesperson confirmed to Business Insider that treks to North America had stopped in Vienna for fuel. He added that other flights to Europe and the Middle East would see "extended" routes.

Another airline, IndiGo, is suspending some routes because of the closure.

The India-based CNBC affiliate CNBC-TV18 reported that the budget carrier had cut flights to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and Almaty, Kazakhstan, through at least May 7 because the longer treks were too far for its narrow-body Airbus planes.

Fuel stops add hours to US-bound flights

During Sunday's Air India flight from Delhi to Chicago, the plane flew about eight hours to Vienna, spent about an hour and a half on the ground, and then flew another nine hours to the US.

Sunday's flight to New York, which stopped in Copenhagen, spent about the same time in the air and a similar 90 minutes on the ground.

The more than 18-hour journeys exceeded the typical 14- to 15-hour treks before the Pakistan closure.

San Francisco flights to and from Mumbai, previously about 17 hours, now exceed 20 hours of travel time with the stop.

"Air India regrets the inconvenience caused to our passengers due to this unforeseen airspace closure that is outside our control," the spokesperson said. "We would like to reiterate that at Air India, the safety of our customers and crew remains top priority."

Nonstop flights will take extra time

Even ifAir India operates some westbound long-haul flightsnonstop, the lengthy detour still adds hours of flight time.

Flight tracking data shows that the route from Toronto to Delhi on Friday and Saturday flew nonstop for about 15 hours, compared with the typical 13 hours previously.

Nonstop flights from India to Europe and the Middle East are less affected time-wise, but they can still be a nuisance for travelers.

Air India flights from Delhi to cities such as Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Paris, Milan, and London took about nine hours before Thursday; now they're reaching 10 or more.

SpiceJet and IndiGo have said they're seeing a similar impact, with IndiGo announcing that 50 international routes would be longer than usual.

For example, since Thursday, Flightradar24 shows IndiGo's flight from Delhi to Tbilisi, Georgia, has taken up to an hour extra. SpiceJet's route from Amritsar, India, to Dubai is similarly longer.

All three airlines have advised customers on social media and their websites to monitor their flight status for schedule adjustments, rebooking, and refund options.

This isn't the first time geopolitical tensions have forced lengthy detours. Carriers such as Finnair and United Airlines started flying extra hours to Asia after Russia closed its airspace following its attack on Ukraine in 2022.