Emirates scheduled flight filed as charter, not allowed to overfly India till confusion sorted out

NEW DELHI: An Emirates flight on its way from the UAE to Singapore on Sunday (April 5) was briefly not allowed to enter Indian airspace. The reason: the Boeing 777’s flight plan was filed as it operating a non-scheduled flight for which there was no approval with Indian authorities. Only subsequently when the airline and the pilots clarified that it was actually a scheduled flight that it was allowed to enter and overfly India.

Comments were sought from Emirates and awaited till the time of going to press.

The confusion started when EK 9314 took off from Ras Al Khaymah. “When it was about to enter the Indian airspace over Arabian Sea at 6.25 am (IST), alert air traffic controllers in Mumbai realised the incoming flight did not have permission to do so. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for issues something known as a YA number for each approved non-scheduled flight to, from and overflying India. The ATC staff asked the DGCA, the airline and even the pilots but the same was nowhere to be found,” said sources.

The aircraft then turned in the opposite direction and hovered there for a while. “Later, after further checking, Emirates confirmed that the flight was actually a scheduled flight, not a non-scheduled one. The pilot also confirmed this. After this clarification, coordination was done again, the required (clearance) was issued, and the flight was allowed to continue to its destination,” said sources.

This Emirates flight was luckier than an IndiGo Delhi-Manchester flight that was sent back to its origin from over Africa due to a call sign confusion about a month back. The aircraft operating was a wet-leased (hired with operating crew) Norse Atlantic Boeing 787 which had got the clearance. But being operated by IndiGo and the clearance being sought to enter Eritrea airspace as “iFly” (IndiGo code) led to confusion in the air traffic control there and then the aircraft took a U-turn and flew back to Delhi, where it landed 13 hours after taking off.

IndiGo had all the required enroute clearance for operating this flight and it turned out to be a very costly confusion. Belonging to an EU carrier, Norse Atlantic is following European Union Aviation Safety Agency’s (EASA) bulletin to avoid West Asia completely. So unlike other carriers like Air India that overfly Saudi Arabia on its routes to and from Europe/UK and North America while bypassing the current enroute no fly zones, Norse Atlantic resumed its Europe flights for IndiGo only recently after Feb 28. Completely avoiding west Asia, it flies to Africa and then goes to Europe from Eritrea side. Ditto on the way back.


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