FLIGHTS FROM AND TO THE GULF TAKING UP TO AN HOUR LONGER DUE TO YEMEN CRISIS
(Posted 29th March 2015)
Airlines flying from East Africa to the Gulf have announced an increase in journey time effective immediately as a result of the conflict now engulfing Yemen and the subsequent closure of that country’s airspace.
RwandAir has as one of the first airlines now issued a statement on their web and Facebook pages which reads as follows:
Due to info
Several Gulf based airlines flying from their hubs in Dubai and Abu Dhabi have equally indicated longer journey times by between 45 minutes to one hour for their services to Entebbe, Nairobi and Dar es Salaam but also other East African destinations.
The same problem has affected flights to and from the Seychelles by Air Seychelles and Etihad but also by Emirates with journey times extended by a similar margin as their aircraft have to fly around Yemeni airspace in order to reach their destinations.
Passengers with tight onward connections in both directions should urgently check with their travel agents or the airlines to make sure that their journey is not interrupted and they reach their final destination without getting stuck due to such delays. It has been pointed out to this correspondent that the delays are beyond the influence of the individual airlines and prompted by regulatory requirements to keep aircraft safe from any hostile action by forces on the ground in Yemen.
In a related development has RwandAir also confirmed that they have relocated from Terminal 1 to the recently modernized Terminal 2 at Dubai International Airport with immediate effect.
