Two Nuclear-Armed Powers in Dispute, Thai Airways Cancels Flights until Further Notice
The rising tension in Kashmir which causes orders for airstrikes from both India and Pakistan sends Thai Airways to cancel several flights to Europe.
A suicide car bomb in Kashmir on February 14, 2019, had killed at least 40 Indian paramilitary police. Suspected to be done by Pakistan-based militants, the tension between India and Pakistan had been in high tension since while both sides have their own nuclear-armed powers.
It has been two days since the two countries ordered an air strikes. The tension escalated when Indian warplanes struck Pakistan yesterday, in which Pakistan claimed that its citizen faced casualties over the strike. Today, both claims that they shot down each other warplane, claiming that the pilots have been held captive.
According to the report, flight operations have been suspended across major airports in Pakistan’s Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa provinces on Wednesday in the wake of the escalating tensions between Pakistan and India.
Meanwhile, India has also shut down five airports in Srinagar, Jammu, Leh, Chandigarh and Amritsar, on Wednesday for civilian air traffic shortly after an IAF jet crashed in Jammu and Kashmir’s Budgam district, but later reported that the airports have been opened for commercial again.
On the other hand, Pakistan’s airspace remains close.
The dispute causes Thai Airways International Public Company Limited (THAI), the operator of Thai Airways, to cancel several flights to Europe as follows: Brussel, Paris, Moscow, Frankfurt, Munich, Copenhagen, Oslo, Zurich, Stockholm, London (Heathrow), Rome, Milan, and Vienna. Thai Airways has yet to resume the operating on these routes.