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Whether caused by a long war or brief skirmish, the closing of skies to air travel is having big effects on cost, convenience and safety.
June 30, 2025, 7:41 a.m. ET
When Israel launched surprise missile attacks on Iran, prompting retaliatory strikes, Gulf countries closed their skies, forcing more than two dozen of the world’s major airlines to divert or cancel flights.
When India and Pakistan engaged in a brief but intense conflict in May, Pakistan and India each banned the use of their skies by the other’s airlines.
After Russia began its war on Ukraine in 2022 and closed its airspace to Western airlines, many American and European airlines were forced to redraw flight paths — a disruption that remains today.
In recent years, airlines worldwide have increasingly had to deal with geopolitics, as extended wars and sudden conflicts require them to abruptly remap major routes and recalculate profitability.
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The risk was clear in 2014, when a Malaysia Airlines jet was shot down over a part of Ukraine controlled by pro-Russia separatists, killing all 298 people on board. In December, dozens died when an Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashed while over Russian airspace, likely after being hit by its air defense systems.
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