Various airlines such as Air India, Jet Airways, Qatar Airways and Singapore Airlines on Wednesday announced they were rerouting their flights as Pakistan closed its airspace in the wake of escalating tensions with India.

“Inbound and outbound flights from USA and Europe for Delhi are being re-routed through Ahmedabad and Mumbai. Flights landing into India from USA and Europe are being re-routed via Dubai and Sharjah and will land into India with a delay,” Air India tweeted on Wednesday evening. The national carrier, however, added “no flights are cancelled and there will only be an increase in the flying time”.

Pakistan closed its airspace for commercial flights and suspended flight operations across major airports, including in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi, for an indefinite period in the wake of the escalating tensions with India.

Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authority made the announcement after the director general of Inter-Services Public Relations, the military’s media arm, acknowledged the closure of Pakistan’s airspace due to the prevailing security situation.

In India, the Jet Airways sought relaxation in flight duty and rest-hour norms from the country’s aviation watchdog the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) due to the closure of the Pakistani airspace and subsequent re-routing of the West-bound flights.

The dispensation has been sought as the flights, which were earlier using the Pakistani airspace, will now have to be operated over the sea, entailing higher flying time than the regular routes, sources said both pilots and cabin crew are governed by  DGCA-mandated flight duty and time limitation (FDTL) norms, but a special dispensation allow the crew to do additional duties and night landings as well.

Meanwhile, Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu tweeted, “Reviewed the current airspace restrictions with Member (ANS), AAI in view of the current cross border situation. I assure you that we are working out modalities so that the air passengers are least inconvenienced. All stakeholders were kept informed. @AAI_Official.”