Airlines put Syria contingency plans in place
Airlines are preparing for disruption as the United States threatens a potential strike on Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
A number of long-haul airlines fly through or close to Syrian air space en route to other major destinations worldwide and to link to hubs in Europe such as Heathrow.
Tim Clark, president of Emirates, said contingency plans being looked at involved re-routing aircraft away from the area, reports the Sunday Telegraph.
Although he stressed operations will continue "as normal" unless there is a serious deterioration in the situation.
"We are always in a state of preparedness for anything like this and the operations group of the company will have all of this on watch; contingency plans will be in place should anything happen," he added.
British Airways said that it would be affected if the country’s airspace and surrounding areas become a no-fly zone.
"We are keeping our operations under review and we would make any changes that would be necessary," a spokesman for BA said.
John Strickland, a London-based aviation analyst at JLS Consulting, said passengers should expect disruptions to travel plans if a conflict breaks out in the region.
"We shouldn’t magnify it out of proportion but what we have seen from other wars or military actions in the Gulf is flight routings may need to change," said Mr Strickland.
"That can disrupt schedules of course because if you’re having to follow more secure routings you’re not able to run to your normal schedule and that directly feeds through to airlines having to burn more fuel."
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