Emirates scheduled flight filed as charter, not allowed to overfly India until confusion sorted out

NEW DELHI: An Emirates flight on its manner from the UAE to Singapore on Sunday (April 5) was briefly not allowed to enter Indian airspace. The motive: the Boeing 777’s flight plan was filed as it operated a non-scheduled flight for which there was no approval with Indian authorities. Only subsequently when the airline and the pilots clarified that it was truly a scheduled flight that it was allowed to enter and overfly India.Comments had been sought from Emirates and awaited until the time of going to press.The confusion began when EK 9314 took off from Ras Al Khaymah. “When it was about to enter the Indian airspace over Arabian Sea at 6.25 am (IST), alert air traffic controllers in Mumbai performed the incoming flight did not have permission to do so. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) issues something known as a YA number for each approved non-scheduled flight to, from and overflying India. The ATC staff asked the DGCA, the airline and even the pilots but the same was nowhere to be found,” sources stated.The plane then turned in the wrong way and hovered there for some time. “Later, after further checking, Emirates confirmed that the flight was actually a scheduled flight, not a non-scheduled one. The pilot also confirmed this. After this clarification, coordination was done again, the required (clearance) was issued, and the flight was allowed to continue to its destination,” sources stated.This Emirates flight was luckier than an IndiGo Delhi-Manchester flight that was despatched again to its origin from over Africa due to a name signal confusion a couple of month again. The plane working was a wet-leased (employed with working crew) Norse Atlantic Boeing 787 which had received the clearance. But being operated by IndiGo and the clearance being sought to enter Eritrea airspace as “iFly” (IndiGo code) led to confusion within the air visitors management there after which the plane took a U-turn and flew again to Delhi, the place it landed 13 hours after taking off.IndiGo had all of the required enroute clearance for working this flight and it turned out to be a really pricey confusion. Belonging to an EU service, Norse Atlantic is following European Union Aviation Safety Agency’s (EASA) bulletin to keep away from West Asia utterly. So not like different carriers like Air India that overfly Saudi Arabia on its routes to and from Europe/UK and North America whereas bypassing the present enroute no fly zones, Norse Atlantic resumed its Europe flights for IndiGo solely just lately after Feb 28. Completely avoiding west Asia, it flies to Africa after which goes to Europe from Eritrea aspect. Ditto on the best way again.