Airlines including United Airlines and Korean Air re-routed or cancelled flights and about a dozen Indian airports were shut on Wednesday after India struck nine sites in Pakistan.
Images from flight tracking websites showed a long line of airlines passing over Oman, UAE and Kauwait after the attack, raising the possibility of airspace congestion. Authorities in Pakistan said 57 international flights were in the country's airspace when India struck. Prime Minister
Shehbaz Sharif's office said India's action "caused grave danger to commercial airlines" belonging to Gulf countries and "endangered lives".
India's civil aviation ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Pakistan's remarks. In the last few days, India and Pakistan had shut their airspaces to each other's airlines. Global airlines like Lufthansa have also been avoiding Pakistan's airspace.
"If the conflict continues, there is a chance that Pakistan could impose a full airspace closure, as they did from Feb to Aug 2019 under similar circumstances," aviation advisory body OPSGROUP said in a blog post published Wednesday.
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