Rivals add Europe-Asia seats while Gulf airlines focus on recovery

• Air India and Virgin add flights
• Gulf carriers restoring services
• DXB at 40% capacity, says CEO

International airlines have beefed up capacity on Europe-Asia routes since the Iran conflict closed airspace and disrupted services around the Middle East.

Air India has added 10 flights between Frankfurt International Airport and New Delhi since the outbreak of hostilities, according to aviation analytics consultancy Cirium. This equates to 2,560 extra seats on the popular route.

The airline has also added five flights – or 1,280 seats – to its service from London Heathrow to New Delhi, according to Cirium data for February 27 to March 16.

Virgin Atlantic, which has suspended all flights to Dubai International Airport (DXB) until March 28, has added 1,020 seats to its schedule from Heathrow to Mumbai.

While international carriers focus on alternative routes, Gulf airlines are slowly building back capacity across their networks. Emirates is now flying to more than 100 destinations, while Etihad Airways has 48 flights scheduled for departure on Thursday. Qatar Airways is operating 18 flights on Wednesday.

In an interview with the Business Breakfast show on radio station Dubai Eye 103.8 on Wednesday, Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths said DXB had moved over 1 million passengers since the start of the conflict on February 28, despite three separate attacks at or near the airport. It usually handles 320,000 customers per day.

Griffiths said DXB was working at 40 percent capacity with 75 airlines operating serving 153 destinations. 

“It really has been an extraordinary activity to get people on their way,” he said.