![\"Flight](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Flight_maps_show_airlines_rerouting_to_avoid_Middle_East_conflict._Source__Flightradar24--0f386a4d-e.jpeg\")
Flight maps show airlines rerouting to avoid Middle East conflict. Source: Flightradar24<\/p>\n
How did the airspace close?<\/p>\n
The world\u2019s airspace is divided into Flight Information Regions (FIRs), which broadly follow international borders. Governments are usually responsible for the regions above them, providing air traffic services.<\/p>\n
In an extreme situation, like a regional war, authorities will alert aircraft that they are restricting or closing their FIRs by issuing a notification called a Notam, or Notice to Air Missions. Multiple FIRs in the Middle East have been closed since bombing began, creating a 2.8m sq km (1.08m sq mile) gap:<\/p>\n
Map showing airspace closures across Middle East<\/a><\/p>\n It is not just governments that cause empty skies. Airlines make decisions on where not to fly based on a number of factors, including warnings from the countries where they are registered (such as the UK for British Airways or India for Air India) and whether their insurers will cover a flight over risky areas. Teams of dispatchers constantly monitor events to ensure safe routes.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the end, the decision about whether a piece of airspace is safe to fly your passengers through it is that of the airline and the airline\u2019s dispatchers, depending on the level of risk,\u201d says the former \u200bBritish military pilot\u200b and aviation expert David Learmount\u200b. This explains the situation in the largely empty airspace over Lebanon, which is being pounded with Israeli attacks. While Lebanon\u2019s FIR is not technically closed, most airlines will not risk flying there.<\/p>\n What have airlines done?<\/p>\n There have been significant changes to major Middle Eastern routes that connect Europe, Africa and Asia.<\/p>\n When bombing began on Saturday, airlines were able to immediately start rerouting, like a flock of birds, as there has been contingency planning for years<\/a>, in which Middle Eastern routes avoiding certain hotspot countries were already planned out. In many cases, jets would have had these routes pre-programmed into their navigation systems.<\/p>\n Two major rerouting options have emerged for airlines \u2013 one that skirts north into the Caucasus but below Ukraine\u2019s closed airspace and the other that funnels air traffic south through Egypt, but also Saudi Arabia and Oman, which are experiencing intermittent attacks.<\/p>\n These corridors are absorbing displaced traffic but it is also creating a chokepoint, which explains why delays and cancellations are building up.<\/p>\n \u201cThis problem is not getting better, it\u2019s getting worse,\u201d said Learmount\u200b. \u201cYou can see the patterns of the way aircraft are going. The northern one is a bottleneck of narrow airspace that routes below southern Russia and Ukraine, and it really entails going through Afghanistan, which is not a very friendly place. Or there is the option of going through southern Saudi Arabia. The airlines don\u2019t really have a choice.\u201d<\/p>\n Why are some flights operating?<\/p>\n Hub airports in the region, including the world\u2019s busiest airport by international transits, Dubai, have been largely shuttered for days. Local carriers Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways are deeply affected.<\/p>\n