For travelers in North America, Europe and the closer Asia hubs like Japan and Singapore are your likely new connection points to reach South Asia and beyond. Singapore’s Changi airport, a longstanding favorite in the region, is reachable from both the US East and West Coast for further connections on Singapore Airlines. Tokyo’s Haneda and Narita airports offer extensive onward connections across Southeast Asia on Japan Airlines and ANA, while Seoul’s Incheon — another top-rated airport—connects easily to Bangkok, Singapore, Manila, and beyond on Korean Air.
Some airlines are adding extra flights to help meet the shifting demand. Lufthansa, for example, said it was adding more flights between Germany and Singapore, Cape Town, and Riyadh, while its group partner Austrian Airlines said it had scheduled 10 special flights from Vienna to Bangkok.
Air Canada has added larger aircraft to its daily Toronto-London-Mumbai flights (and operated an extra daily flight for three weeks, ending on March 21, to provide extra capacity). British Airways added seven round trips from London to Bangkok and Singapore totaling more than 3,000 seats “to meet rising demand for these routes as a result of the situation in the Middle East.” (The UK carrier hopes to resume flights to Qatar at the end of April.)
The problem is that the rest of the world’s aviation network was not built to absorb a hole this size. Air India and Virgin Atlantic have added capacity with larger planes between Europe and India, according to Cirium data, while most other airlines show the same capacity in March as compared to when fighting began last month. The same is true for flights between the US and Asia, where Korean Air and American Airlines have virtually the same number of seats available.
With fewer route options, travelers can expect to pay more for the most popular routes. “Before the fighting began, you might have been able to get a round-trip fare in business class on either United or Singapore Airlines for anywhere between $5,000 and $7,000 with some advanced planning,” says Harteveldt. “I just checked, and United Airlines now wants more than $18,000 for the same itinerary.”
Why some flight routes may take longer
Airlines are largely limited by a plane’s range when planning routes. When Russia’s airspace closed in 2022, the Gulf became aviation’s escape valve. Now the escape valve is gone, forcing flights through a narrow passage over the Caucasus Mountains (a region linking Eastern Europe and Western Asia)—or thousands of miles south around the conflict zone entirely.
Routes that previously stretched a plane to the maximum of its capabilities may no longer be able to fly nonstop with any change in flight plan. Air India has been among the most impacted, particularly on long-haul routes to North America. The carrier’s flights from India to the East Coast are now making technical stops in Rome or Vienna — a consequence of the conflict forcing aircraft further south over the Arabian Peninsula. It’s a fresh wrinkle for Air India, which was already contending with a ban on Indian carriers flying over Pakistani airspace that had long pushed these routes off their most direct path. The return trip requires no stop: westbound tailwinds shorten the journey enough that the plane stays within range.
