Disruption to Flying in the Gulf?

[balance ball]

Has anyone flown (or planned to have flown) a route through the Gulf, onwards to Indian Ocean destiantions or the Far East lately?
I'm due to fly as pax to Male/Maldives in a few weeks (MON charter) and I noticed that the outbound and return legs that were due to depart last Sunday were delayed 24 hrs (unsurprisingly) due to the Allied attacks. I know that the airline has already axed its scheduled refuel in Bahrain 'to restore passenger confidence'. I wouldn't say that I necessarily need my confidence restored as I am certain that if it were not safe to fly through the region, then the airlines simply wouldn't risk lives & aircraft. I am curious as to how or if the route might have been changed though - it seems there are not too many alternate routings that could be made for this destination that do not cross sensitive airspace. Can we expect to see such routes suspended for a while?
(PS due to fly first solo X-country today - wx & flooded runway permitting!)

[Basil]

As far as I'm aware, services through the Persian Gulf are operating normally, some with re-routing to avoid perceived "less friendly" governments areas of control.
Bahrain is IMHO no more risky for a techstop than, eg, Dubai although Muscat may be better.
The trouble is, you'd have to speak to Pak/Brit/Yank intelligence to reach a sensible decision.
Have a great hol - the scuba & snorkelling is terrific. If you decide not to go and wish to GIVE your seat(s) away, e-mail [email protected] :D

[Gaza]

A couple of years ago during the Kosovo campaign NATO requirements closed huge parts of airspace. I was regularly flying AMS-JNB at the time and had some long delays. One night our scheduled departure time of 20:10 came and went. The flightdeck kept us well informed saying they were trying for alternative routings and altitudes but had no luck. They eventually decide to serve dinner will we waited. It was strange being served an inflight meal whil sitting at the gate! Eventually we got airborne at around 00:30.

Balance Ball - good luck with your X/C. I did mine in Florida and had to dodge the thunderstorms. Less than ideal, I can tell you!!

[ 11 October 2001: Message edited by: Gaza ]

[SKYCAMEL]

BB,

I operated Male-Dubai the morning after the bombing started and there were no changes at all or delays. The weather in Male wasn't to bad with just some passing showers. Have a good Holiday. ;)

[BOEINGBOY1]

BB. theres is a good chance that you will find that your flight will now operate direct, as many male flights are now being operated on a330 a/c and so have the range to operate direct. however there are also other monarch a/c operating to all over the indian ocean. although there is no specific threat to bah, steps are being taken to refuel further away from the region. hope this helps.

[sirwa69]

DISASTER!
If MON has stopped stopping in Bahrain for fuel and crew change I will have no more of their lovely girlies to play with.
Sh%t, I'll just have to go back to the GAG's

btw
My little home island is probably the safest place in the world at the moment. (I don't think the nasties are gonna let of bio/chem weapons in their own backyard).

:cool: :cool: :cool: :eek:

[ironbutt57]

Have to agre with sirwa69..no friendlier place to be...lot better 'n downtown detroit
:cool: :cool: :cool:

[commercialdriver]

Little bit of rerouting if flying over Western Pakistan airspace, now they will take you over KC, instead of PG, way clear of any hostilities. Airspace b/w FL250 and FL350 not available.

[Ttree Ttrimmer]

Flown around the area a few times recently. Occaisional closure of airspace between FL250 and 350 but was open last night. Bound sure to here the US drawl on the radio being cagey about what they are and where they are going but it doesn't take a brain surgeon to work it out. TCAS systems not modified for RVSM will have fun with the military using intermediate levels like FL340.

Interesting nav warning "deviations into afghanistan airspace should be avoided"! As if we want to go have a look. Other than that nothing unusual.

[sirwa69]

I bumped into a MON ground engineer yesterday while pottering around on the wet stuff and he said that the rerouting of the Male flight was only for 48 hours last week and is now back to normal with the stops in BAH.
Phew!! :D

[balance ball]

Thanks for the replies folks.Looks like I might be swapping the waters of the English Channel for the Indian Ocean after all!

[GotTheTshirt]

Just ferried into the Mid East this morning and heard a US Military refused overfly over Saudi !!! Not enough fuel to go back !! trying to get into Cairo last we heard.
Nothing like good flight planning !!!

[Silkman]

Rumour on Friday was the Spotty 'M's are tech stopping in Cairo this winter ISO BAH inc the A330 as it cannot operate direct ex MLE to LGW.

[BOEINGBOY1]

well the mona330's are and will continue to operate direct lgw-mle and mle-lgw. however the a300's that also operate the same route are still operating through bah. this tech stop may well be re-located in the near future. no mention of cai as a planned tech stop for either a/c, however it would make a good en-route fuel diversion stop. mon do use cai as a fuel/tech stop for other a300's flights to mba.

[sandcastle]

Balance Boy , The MON Male flights will operate direct because the charterer KUONI qte "do not want their customers flying thru Islamic States (i.e. BAH) in the Arabian Gulf en route to Male" !!
Male is in the Maldives and guess what, the Maldives is 100% Islamic? Has nobody told them or you. Enjoy your holiday.

Forget CAI as a tech. stop. Why pull out of BAH and use CAI? Egypt is top of the list on the UK DTLR threat risks, its damned expensive for fuel, catering and not the best place in the Middle East for UK crews to relax.
BAH combines the best pricing in the region, eg. for fuel, catering, hotac, pubs, etc and is uniquely safe.
BAH has been home to MON for more than 10 years, we even name dishes in the "Warblers" after MON.

Oh by the way, MON were on the ground here this morning with an A300.

Its business as usual.

[balance ball]

Sandcastle, from your post anyone would be forgiven for thinking that I had a problem with the Bahrain stop! Far from it. I was disappointed to hear that it had been pulled as I enjoyed an albeit brief stop there en route to India a few years ago. I was looking forward to a return for restocks on duty free (no good on way out though, apparently no duty free booze imports allowed to MLE?).
You are right, it was Kuoni that I was quoting in my original post, not that i necessarily agree with their reasoning. At the end of the day though, as a humble fare paying punter, I was just looking for some views 'from the sharp end' on the situation rather than relying upon scant info from the tour operators themselves as to how the trip may or may not be affected. Interesting thoughts all round though, I have to say.
(Oh, and yes, I did know about the Islamic bit - have read Lonely Planet and did A level geography)