Global air travel remains severely disrupted after the war in Iran forced the closure of major West Asian hubs, including Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi, stranding tens of thousands of passengers. Below is the latest on flights, in alphabetical order:

Aegean Airlines: Greece’s largest carrier has cancelled flights to Tel Aviv, Beirut and Amman until April 22, 2026, and to Erbil and Baghdad until May 24. Flights to ‌Dubai have been cancelled until April 19 and to Riyadh until April 18.

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Airbaltic: Latvia’s AirBaltic said all flights ​to Tel Aviv had been cancelled until April 29. All flights to Dubai stand cancelled until October 24.

Air Canada: The ⁠Canadian carrier has cancelled all flights to Tel Aviv until May 2 and to Dubai until March 28.

Air Europa: The Spanish airline has cancelled all flights to Tel Aviv until April 10.

Air France KLM: Air France has cancelled Tel Aviv and Beirut flights until March 28 and Dubai and Riyadh flights until ‌March 24, including the March 25 departure from Dubai. KLM suspended flights to Riyadh, Dammam and Dubai until May 17 and to Tel Aviv until April 11.

Cathay Pacific: The Hong Kong airline has cancelled all passenger and cargo flights to ‌Dubai and Riyadh until April 30. It has, however, added extra flights to London between March 21 and March 28 ‌owing to ⁠increased demand.

Delta: The U.S. carrier has cancelled its New York-Tel Aviv flights until May 31 and Tel Aviv-New York ⁠flights until June 1. The restart of its Atlanta-Tel Aviv route has been delayed, with flights to Tel Aviv paused until August 4 and from Tel Aviv until August 5.

El Al Israel Airlines: The Israeli carrier said operational constraints are preventing regular flights from Israel, except in rare, exceptional cases, and that it is continuing efforts to bring passengers ​home. The airline has also urged authorities to open Ramon ‌Airport near Eilat.

Emirates: The UAE airline said it was operating a reduced flight schedule following a partial reopening of regional airspace.

Etihad Airways: The UAE carrier said it was operating a limited commercial flight schedule between Abu Dhabi and select destinations.

Finnair: The Finnish carrier has cancelled its Dubai flights until March 29 and Doha flights until July 2, while continuing to avoid the airspace of Iraq, ‌Iran, Syria and Israel.

Flynas: Saudi budget airline Flynas has extended its suspension of flights to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Doha, Bahrain, ​Kuwait, Iraq and Syria until March 31.

IAG: IAG-owned British Airways has extended cancellations of flights to Amman, Bahrain, Dubai and Tel Aviv until May 31 and to Doha until April 30, while adding flights to Bangkok and Singapore. ⁠Flights to Abu Dhabi remain suspended until later this year.

Indigo: The Indian airline has suspended operations to Doha, Kuwait, Bahrain, Dammam, Fujairah, Ras Al Khaimah and Sharjah until March 28.

Japan Airlines: Japan Airlines has suspended scheduled Tokyo-Doha flights until March 31 and Doha-Tokyo flights until April 1.

LOT: The Polish airline ‌said all its flights to Dubai stand cancelled until March 28 and to Tel Aviv until May 31. It has also cancelled flights to Riyadh until April 30 and to Beirut from March 31 to April 30.

Lufthansa group: The German airline group, which includes Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, Swiss, Brussels Airlines and ITA Airways, has suspended flights to Tel Aviv through April 9, and to Beirut, Dubai, Amman, Erbil and Abu Dhabi until March 28. Flights to Tehran are suspended through April 30 and to Riyadh until April 5.

Malaysia Airlines: The Malaysian carrier has suspended all flights to Doha until March 28.

Norwegian Air: The low-cost airline has pushed back planned launches of its Tel Aviv and Beirut services to ‌June 15, from April 1 and April 4, respectively. It has cancelled all Dubai flights through April 8.

Pegasus: Turkey’s Pegasus Airlines has cancelled its Iran, Iraq, Amman, Beirut, ​Kuwait, Bahrain, Doha, Dammam, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah flights until April 13. Flights to Riyadh have been cancelled until March 24.

Qatar Airways: The carrier said it would operate a revised limited number of flights until March 28.

Singapore Airlines: Singapore ⁠Airlines said it will extend the suspension of its Singapore-Dubai flights until April 30, and add services between Singapore and London Gatwick from March ⁠31 to October 24, and on the Singapore-Melbourne route from March 29 to October 24 to meet higher demand.

Turkish Airlines: Turkish Airlines has cancelled most Middle East flights until the end of March. SunExpress, its joint venture with Lufthansa, has cancelled flights ‌to Dubai and Bahrain until March 23.

Vietnam Airlines: Vietnam’s flag carrier has planned to cancel 23 flights per week across several domestic routes from April.

Wizz Air: The low-cost airline has suspended flights to Israel until March 29, and to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Amman and ​Jeddah from mainland European destinations until mid-September.

Published – March 24, 2026 12:45 pm IST

New Delhi:

Airports across India are still grappling with issues from yesterday’s massive Microsoft outage. Although the situation has improved significantly since Friday’s chaotic scenes, passengers continue to face challenges, particularly at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI).

At Delhi’s IGI Airport’s Terminal 3, passengers experienced some improvement today, but a few problems persist. Yesterday, the automatic self-drop baggage and check-in machines were non-functional, causing long queues outside Gate No. 5 in Terminal 3. While many passengers can print out their boarding passes today, international travellers still face issues with boarding pass generation, with some being issued manual passes inside the airport.

The Digi Yatra machines at Gates 1-3, which facilitate seamless entry, remain non-operational, necessitating manual entries. Display boards showing wait times, flight schedules, and other crucial information, which were down yesterday, are now functional. However, the overall system has not yet fully recovered, as confirmed by airport officials.

Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport fared better than its counterparts in Delhi and Bengaluru. Although long queues were reported, operations are running more smoothly today. Nonetheless, two flights, one to Varanasi and one to Kochi, were cancelled this morning, and several international flights were rescheduled. This is an improvement from yesterday when nine domestic flights, all operated by IndiGo, were cancelled. IndiGo has warned of potential cancellations today but expressed optimism that yesterday’s disruption will not be repeated as the Microsoft outage was not reported today.

Global Outage

The outage, attributed to an update by global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, disrupted Microsoft’s Windows systems worldwide, affecting financial institutions, airlines, hospitals, and media channels. In India, this caused airline check-in systems to crash, leading to delays and the cancellation of dozens of flights. IndiGo alone cancelled around 200 flights, with hundreds more delayed as manual check-in procedures significantly slowed the process.

The Indian financial sector experienced minor disruptions at about ten banks and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), which have largely been resolved, according to the Reserve Bank of India. However, the outage’s impact on airports from Chennai to Delhi was severe, with passengers facing long queues due to unavailable web check-in services and manual ticketing processes.

Airlines such as IndiGo, Akasa Air, Vistara, Air India, SpiceJet, and Air India Express acknowledged the issues via social media. Passengers received handwritten boarding passes, and the manual ticketing and luggage check-in process extended to 30-40 minutes per person, leading to frustration and overcrowded lounges.

Other Airports

Besides Delhi and Mumbai, high-density airports like Bengaluru and Chennai saw the most significant impacts. At Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport, airlines such as IndiGo, Akasa, SpiceJet, and Air India Express initiated manual check-ins to ensure minimal disruption.  The technical glitch has been fully resolved at Bengaluru airport, and operations have returned to normal. However, there is slight congestion due to the residual impact of yesterday’s operational delays. Due to the backlog, it will take a few hours for the crowds to clear.

Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport experienced cancellations of 23 flights, including IndiGo flights to Visakhapatnam, Tirupati, Ahmedabad, and Bengaluru.

Ministerial Assurances

Union Civil Aviation Minister Rammohan Naidu assured that the ministry and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) are managing the situation using manual methods to minimise disruption. Minister for Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw confirmed that the cause of the outage had been identified and that updates had been released to resolve the issue. According to the Aviation Ministry, systems at airports across the country started operating normally from 3 am this morning. 

“By noon today, we expect all issues to be resolved,” the ministry said in a statement. 

CrowdStrike confirmed the problem was due to a defect in a content update for Windows hosts and not a security incident or cyberattack.

Representational image of an Air India express aircraft.
| Photo Credit: G. Ramakrishna

Air India Express has cancelled “scores of flights” due to a shortage of cabin crew members as a section of them are reporting sick to protest against alleged mismanagement at the Tata Group-owned airline, according to sources.

Discontent has been brewing among a section of the cabin crew at the low-cost carrier for some time now, especially after the start of the process of merger of AIX Connect, formerly AirAsia India, with itself.

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The sources on Wednesday said several cabin crew members started reporting sick since Monday evening and as there are not enough cabin crew members, “scores of flights” have been cancelled at various airports, including Kochi, Kozhikode and Bengaluru.

Late last month, a union representing a section of the Air India Express cabin crew alleged that the airline is being mismanaged and there is a lack of equality in the treatment of the staff.

Air India Express Employees Union (AIXEU), a registered union, which claims to represent around 300 cabin crew members, mostly seniors, had also alleged that mismanagement of the affairs has affected the morale of the employees.

Many passengers took to social media on Wednesday complaining about the sudden cancellation of flights.

In response to a passenger’s post on X about flight cancellation, Air India Express apologised and said the flight was cancelled “due to operational reasons”.

“As part of our service recovery process, you can either opt to reschedule the flight within the next 7 days or request a full refund through our chat bot Tia…,” the airline said in a post on X.

The development at Air India Express comes a month after Tata Group full-service carrier Vistara witnessed pilot woes, forcing it to temporarily cut down capacity by 10 per cent or 25-30 flights daily.

As part of consolidating its airline business, Tata Group is merging Air India Express and AIX Connect, as well as Vistara with Air India.