Routing AUH - MAA
 

Paxed this route during the week with the Airline that cannot be named on a 321. From AUH we headed NE toward Bandar Abbas before heading East over Southern Pakistan and then SE over Hyderabad and Pune and down to Chennai.

Are there airways or aircraft restrictions that mean this can't be done as a direct flight over Oman and the Arabian Sea?

Would take a guess that winds played a part. Might have been significant jet stream activity heading East to warrant taking a longer route (in terms of track miles) to the north.

I'd rather think TARDI/LABRI slot avoidance routing.

Yes that would definitively be the reason.

But in this day, why can't the Indian Ocean be opened up to more traffilc? With RNP and CPDLC available, why should this sort of nonsense be costing airlines and pax considerably?

The reason is slot times and not the jet stream. Between the peak departure period out of AUH and the sheer amount of traffic from the Gulf and Europe funneling through Oman, slot times are a nightly gamble. Only so many departures allowed per hour, and if operational delays cause a slot time to be missed, a 15 minute delay can quickly become a 2 hour or more delay.

goeasy, one question?
 

Are you a pilot?

Thanks folks, so slots/congestion is the issue, I did notice there was a significant wave of 319/320/321 traffic ready to launch around the same time as us to various points, busy old area.

Fair question. The answer is because the Muscat ATC authority is a loooong way behind the curve. They have needed a lot more controllers for a long time. I understand they are slooowly addressing this, with perhaps, an increase in numbers in the near future. Inshallah.

Many aircraft divert around the undermanned Muscat FIR due flow constraints that are there simply due to a lack of manpower/lack of will by authorities to fix.

Rumour has it that Muscat now have enough staff to no longer need the morning flow restrictions but consider it easier just to leave it in place, its only a rumour though.

Rule 3
 

Yes, and unfortunately one who has to fly around this waste of space too often.