Passengers flying on the low-cost airline Eurowings between Dubai and Berlin and Stuttgart could be in for a nasty surprise in the coming weeks, as airspace restrictions on these routes are making the experience pretty challenging.
How challenging? Well, in some cases, the flight is taking just an extra hour or so, but in other cases, planes are being forced to divert to Thessaloniki in Greece to take on more fuel.
And it gets worse, because some passengers have then discovered the hard way that the stopover in Greece is pushing their arrival time in their intended destination so late that a landing curfew is in effect and the plane is diverted for a second time!
As first reported by the German aviation magazine, AeroTELEGRAPH, this has already happened a couple of times.
On January 24, Eurowings flight EW-1153 from Dubai to Stuttgart departed the UAE at around 8:30 pm for what should have been around a seven-hour flight.
That’s not, however, how things worked out. The Airbus A320neo first flew to Thessaloniki, where it took on more fuel and departed again in the direction of Germany.
Unfortunately, by this point, a nighttime landing curfew was in effect in stuttgart so the plane then had to divert to Nuremberg, which doesn’t have overnight restrictions.
The aircraft ended up completing 163 km of the journey on the morning of January 25 at around 10 am.
Just a day later, on January 26, the same plane ended up making another fuel stop in Thessaloniki on the way back from Dubai, before heading to Hannover.
The reason for these extra-long flights is that, like many other European airlines, the Lufthansa Group (which owns Eurowings) has directed its member airlines not to fly over Iranian or Iraqi airspace for the timebeing due to the geopolitical situation in the region.
In particular, the European Aviation Agency (EASA) has warned that with the US military building up its presence in the Gulf of Oman, the regime in Iran is on high alert and could mistakenly shoot down a commercial passenger jet, fearing it is, instead, an enemy fighter jet or bomber.
As a result, the most direct route back from Dubai to Germany over Iraqi airspace is no longer available, so planes are flying across Saudi Arabia, while also avoiding Israeli, Lebanese, and Syrian airspace.
Depending on how strong the headwinds are, the single-aisle Airbus A320s used by Eurowings don’t have the range to make it all the way back to Germany, so a fuel stop is necessary.
A spokesperson for Eurowings confirmed the situation, explaining: “The adjustment may result in longer flight times to/from Dubai as well as short-term adjustments to the routes. Due to the wind situation, a refuelling stop is therefore necessary on the return flight from Dubai to Germany.”
For passengers booked on this route, there’s just no way of knowing whether a refuelling stop will be necessary because it all depends on the weather conditions on the day.
While airlines are pushing more single-aisle aircraft onto long-haul routes, this isn’t an issue for widebody jets flying similar distances with unexpected route changes because they have so much extra capacity in their fuel tanks.
