Thai flights to Europe to resume

Thai Airways will resume flights to and from Europe after receiving permission to use China's airspace.

Thai Airways flights to Europe are set to resume later on Thursday after they were cancelled earlier when Pakistan closed its airspace amid escalating tensions with India.

After suspending more than a dozen flights to and from Europe late Wednesday, the Thai carrier said it received permission to use China's airspace, allowing flights from Bangkok to European cities to resume from midday (0500 GMT) onwards.

Thousands of tourists had reportedly been stranded at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport since late Wednesday.

Indian fighter jets on Wednesday crossed the Line of Control (LoC) dividing Indian-administered Kashmir from the Pakistan-controlled area and were shot down by the Pakistani air force, which said it captured an Indian pilot.

Both countries closed their airspace and suspended commercial flights on Wednesday.

Hours later India resumed commercial flights at all of its airports.

Other airlines also suspended and rescheduled flights, while other South-East Asian airports' schedules were also likely to be affected.

Several airlines, including Emirates and Qatar Airways, suspended flights to Pakistan on Wednesday. Others, such as Singapore Airlines and British Airways, were forced to reroute flights.

Singapore Airlines said on Thursday all of its Europe-bound flights would continue as planned, without any refuelling stops, and they would reroute to avoid the affected airspace as necessary.

Sri Lanka's national airline also cancelled flights to the Pakistani cities of Karachi and Lahore on Wednesday, and the country's Foreign Ministry released a statement calling for "all endeavours towards the diffusion of tensions."


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Source: AAP


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