Operation Sindoor: India shuts 27 airports, cancels 400 flights

As tensions between India and Pakistan continued to escalate, the Indian government cancelled over 400 flights on Thursday and suspended operations at 27 airports.

The development came a day after India retaliated for the Pahalgam terror attack with Operation Sindoor, striking nine terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Wednesday had also seen a slew of flight cancellations.

Airports in northern, western, and central India will remain closed until 5:29 a.m. on Saturday (May 10). As many as 430 flights—accounting for 3% of India’s total scheduled flights—were cancelled. Meanwhile, Pakistan cancelled 147 flights, representing 17% of its total scheduled flights.

The following airports have been closed: Srinagar, Jammu, Leh, Chandigarh, Amritsar, Ludhiana, Patiala, Bathinda, Halwara, Pathankot, Bhuntar, Shimla, Gaggal, Dharamsala, Kishangarh, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Mundra, Jamnagar, Rajkot, Porbandar, Kandla, Keshod, Bhuj, Gwalior, and Hindon.

According to PTI, airlines including Air India, IndiGo, SpiceJet, Air India Express, Akasa Air, and several foreign carriers have cancelled their services to and from various affected airports.

Flightradar24 data revealed that the airspace over Pakistan and the western corridor of India—stretching from Kashmir to Gujarat—was devoid of civilian air traffic, as airlines avoided the sensitive region.

On April 22, terrorists from The Resistance Front (TRF)—a splinter group of Lashkar-e-Taiba—killed 26 people, mostly tourists, in the Baisaran Valley of Kashmir. India retaliated with Operation Sindoor, targeting nine terrorist camps operated by Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and Hizbul Mujahideen.