Hundreds of flights in the Middle East were canceled, and many others were diverted after many countries closed their airspace following US and Israeli strikes on Iran. Key airports linking Europe, Africa, and Asia also stopped operations, disrupting travel across the region and beyond.
The closure of the airspace over Dubai disrupted travel plans for many Indians. One among them was Sumanth Doddapaneni, a PhD scholar at IIT Madras and researcher at Sarvam AI.
In a post shared on the social media platform X, Sumanth revealed that he had planned a two-week solo trip across Italy which has now been shelved due to flight disruptions.
“Saara paisa dub gaya”
Sumanth said that he had planned a vacation after one year of working on LLM models at Sarvam AI. Unfortunately, after all the bookings were done, he was forced to cancel his plans. This resulted in a monetary loss for the Sarvam employee, who is currently on a break from his PhD programme at IIT Madras.
“I spent the last one week making bookings, after a year of working on the models I thought this was my time for a vacation,” Sumanth wrote on X.
“Starting tomorrow I was gonna go on a 2 week solo trip in Italy starting from Milan -> Bologna -> Florence -> Rome -> Naples -> Sorrento. Now I’m sad and in blr,” he added, where “blr” referred to Bengaluru.
The Bengaluru-based professional did try to look at the silver lining — “On the bright side I guess I’m alive!” he wrote.
In the comments section, he rued the loss of money. “Abb tho saara paisa dubgaya na, I have nothing left to book (I’ve lost all my money),” he told one person who suggested he fly to Japan instead.
When another person asked why Middle East tensions would affect his Europe travel plans, Sumanth replied, “My flight is through Dubai, the airspace is closed.”
Flights cancelled
Flights across the Middle East were cancelled Saturday after several countries closed their airspace following US and Israeli strikes on Iran. Major airlines, including Air France, Air India, Turkish Airlines, Norwegian, Air Algérie, and Lufthansa, announced widespread flight cancellations.
(Also read: Bengaluru CEO thanks Air India after Emirates flight to Dubai cancelled: ‘Maharaja getting me home’)
Dubai International Airport (DXB) and Al Maktoum International Airport temporarily suspended flight operations, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded.
According to aviation analytics company Cirium, of around 4,218 flights scheduled to land in Middle Eastern countries on Saturday, 966 (22.9 percent) were cancelled, with the figure rising above 1,800 if also including outbound flights.
(With inputs from AFP)