Tiny corridor that determines if Brits can go on holiday is shrinking | Travel News | Travel

The flight corridor that determines whether huge numbers of passengers can reach their destination is shrinking.

32,432. That’s how many Middle East flights have been cancelled since Israel and the US started bombing Iran at the end of February. The number of impacted passengers now stretches well into the millions.

Although the daily cancellation total is now significantly reduced to 11% a day, according to analytics firm Cirium, the ripples of disruption are still being felt and will for some time.

One way the war has and will continue to impact travel is by narrowing flight corridors. Now, many European holidaymakers are reliant on a roughly 50-mile route across three countries.

The flight corridor over Azerbaijan is one that many commercial airplanes have been flying through to get from Europe to Asia since early March, when the country closed some of its airspace following drone strikes the Azerbaijani authorities claim had been launched from Iranian territory.

Before the Iran war, the Azerbaijan path was 100 miles wide at its narrowest points, due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine to the north. It is now 50 miles wide, with airspace to the south shut down by the Azerbaijan authorities.

Nearly three weeks into the Iran war, this route through Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey is one of only two available for a majority of long-haul flights between Europe and Asia. The other route passes through Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

The lack of available airspace is driving competition among airlines to secure routes. It is also making flying more expensive and damaging to the environment.

Before 2022, flights between much of Europe and Asia followed a path over Russia, through the « Siberian Corridor. » That was considered one of the most direct ways to link up the two continents.

After Russia invaded Ukraine, Western airlines lost access to the airspace. Now a flight from northern Europe, which would’ve gone straight over Russia, has to take a longer route either over the North Pole or around the Black Sea. This can add around three hours to a nine-hour trip, burning thousands of pounds more jet fuel and releasing dozens of tonnes more CO2e into the atmosphere.

The other route from Europe to Asia that is currently open takes passengers south, over Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Although it is getting back to capacity after weeks of delays and cancellations, the expanding war in Iran means its viability in the long or medium term is not certain.

Dubai International Airport is usually one of the world’s busiest travel hubs, averaging about 1,200 departures and landings a day. It, like many airports in the region, is still operating far below its standard capacity. This is in part due to the aerial battles going on over head.

On Friday, the UAE government estimated that it had intercepted 338 ballistic missiles, 15 cruise missiles, and 1,740 drones since February 28, Forbes reports. Despite these efforts, at least eight people have been killed in the UAE, and over 150 have been injured.

Ian Petchenik, the communications director for the flight-tracking site FlightRadar24, worries that the shrinking of flight corridors and the unreliable status of large travel hubs is pushing up the prices of plane tickets. He told the New York Times: “At some point, we get to the point where airlines have to make the decision: Is this route still economically viable? Is this a route that we can continue to operate long term within these parameters?”

Mr. Petchenik describes the flight corridor above Azerbaijan as « a very narrow strip of land. »

In order to bump up the number of planes that can fly on a narrowed flight corridor, air traffic controllers direct aircraft to fly at different altitudes – effectively spacing them out.

However, according to Graham Wild, a senior lecturer of aviation science and technology at the University of New South Wales in Australia, this can cause other issues.