Ethiopia Volcano Ash Hits India Gulf Flights

Published on Nov 26, 2025, 11:20 am CST

7 min read

Key points

Ash from Ethiopia's Hayli Gubbi volcano disrupted India Gulf flights between November 24 and 26, 2025
Air India cancelled at least 11 flights and grounded aircraft for inspections after crossing ash affected routes
Akasa Air suspended all flights to Jeddah, Kuwait, and Abu Dhabi on November 24 and 25 due to safety concerns
India's aviation regulator and meteorological service say the ash plume has now exited Indian airspace, limiting severe impacts to a few days
Travelers on India Gulf routes should expect residual delays, schedule changes, and tight seats as airlines clear backlogs

Impact

Where Impacts Are Most Likely: The highest disruption is on nonstop and connecting flights between Indian metros such as Delhi and Mumbai and Gulf hubs including Jeddah, Kuwait City, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Sharjah
Best Times To Fly: Flights from November 27 onward should see improving conditions, but early morning and late night departures on busy India Gulf routes may still be less crowded than afternoon peaks
Connections And Misconnect Risk: Travelers with same day connections through Gulf hubs should keep at least three hours of buffer and avoid separate tickets on India Gulf itineraries through the end of the week
What Travelers Should Do Now: Check your booking status, accept proactive rebooking where offered, and use airline apps to monitor gate changes and delays on India Gulf flights affected by the ash disruption
Health And Safety Factors: Volcanic ash can damage aircraft engines at cruising altitudes, so travelers should expect conservative routing and cancellations as airlines follow safety advisories

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The Ethiopia ash India Gulf flights disruption is easing after Hayli Gubbi volcano in northern Ethiopia sent a high altitude ash cloud across key airways between November 24 and 26, 2025, forcing Indian and international airlines to cancel and reroute services between cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Jeddah, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Kuwait City. Air India pulled at least 11 flights from its schedule and grounded several aircraft for detailed inspections, while Akasa Air temporarily halted all operations on select Gulf routes as the plume crossed the Arabian Sea and brushed northwest India. Travelers who rely on India Gulf connections now face a few days of knock on delays, tighter seats, and a higher risk of missed connections even as meteorologists say the worst has passed.

The eruption of Ethiopia's long dormant Hayli Gubbi volcano pushed ash into the upper atmosphere and briefly forced airlines to redraw standard routings, which means India Gulf flights may continue to run off schedule as carriers work through inspections, aircraft positioning, and passenger backlogs.

How The Ash Cloud Hit India Gulf Routes

Hayli Gubbi, located in Ethiopia's Afar region, erupted over the weekend, sending an ash plume up to roughly 14 kilometers high into upper level winds that carried it across Yemen, Oman, the Arabian Sea, and into northwestern India. Within about 72 hours, the ash cloud traveled more than 4,000 kilometers and was detected over Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Delhi NCR, Haryana, and Punjab, passing directly over busy corridors that tie Indian metros to Gulf hubs.

India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation, DGCA, issued a safety order telling airlines to review operational manuals, adjust flight planning, and avoid affected airspace, which triggered a wave of cancellations and diversions on November 24 and 25 as carriers chose longer routings or scrubbed flights outright. The India Meteorological Department, IMD, later confirmed that ash had exited most Indian airspace by late evening on November 25, with satellite imagery showing the plume shifting northeast toward China by about 10:30 p.m. local time.

Which Flights Were Cancelled Or Rerouted

Air India cancelled at least 11 international flights on November 24 and 25, focusing on routes where aircraft had flown near the ash plume, then pulled several wide body jets from service for borescope engine inspections and related checks. Some long haul sectors from New York, Newark, Dubai, Doha, and Dammam were delayed or cancelled as crews and aircraft were repositioned, and passengers were rebooked on later services once inspections cleared planes to return to rotation.

Akasa Air took an even more conservative approach on its younger Gulf network, cancelling all flights to and from Jeddah, Kuwait City, and Abu Dhabi scheduled for November 24 and 25 and offering full refunds or alternative travel dates. Local media and aviation advisories indicate that some India UAE flights on other carriers were also delayed, rerouted, or cancelled as ash drifted over standard tracks toward Dubai and Sharjah, although many services continued on modified routings once conditions allowed.

Authorities and airline statements so far frame the disruption as limited in scope compared with a full closure of Indian airspace, with the civil aviation ministry stressing that only a relatively small number of flights were cancelled or significantly rerouted. For travelers, however, even a short cluster of cancellations on trunk routes between India and the Gulf can cascade into full flights for several days, scarce same day rebooking options, and longer waits for checked baggage on misconnected itineraries.

How Volcanic Ash Affects Aircraft

Volcanic ash is not like ordinary dust or smoke. It contains microscopic rock and glass fragments that can sandblast cockpit windows, contaminate sensors, and, most critically, melt inside jet engines and then resolidify on turbine blades at cruising altitudes. This can lead to power loss, surging, or engine damage, which is why aviation rules treat ash contaminated airspace as inherently unsafe even when skies look clear to the naked eye.

In the Hayli Gubbi case, strong jet stream winds lofted the ash to typical airline cruising levels and pushed it along a narrow band that overlapped high density routes between India, the Middle East, and Europe. Regulators responded by leaning on satellite imagery, pilot reports, and global volcanic ash advisory center products to map "do not enter" zones and recommend detours that either added time to flights or forced cancellations when crews, aircraft, or fuel planning could not be adjusted in time.

For travelers, the key point is that ash risk is binary from an airline perspective, and carriers will choose to cancel or reroute rather than risk engines, even if the airport itself appears to be operating normally.

Current Outlook For India Gulf Travelers

By late November 25, experts at IMD and international volcanic ash advisory centers reported that the ash plume had passed beyond India, and Ethiopian officials said the eruption itself had subsided after several days of intense activity. That means the highest risk period for India Gulf flights sits in a tight window between November 24 and 26, 2025, with most new cancellations likely tapering off quickly as skies clear along standard routings.

Even so, travelers should expect residual disruption for several days. Aircraft pulled for inspections need to be reintroduced into schedules, pilots and cabin crews must return to their normal rosters, and stranded passengers will compete for seats on already popular India Gulf sectors, especially in the run up to year end holidays. Flights from November 27 onward are likely to operate, but many may be close to full, with limited flexibility to accommodate same day changes.

Practical Planning Tips And Alternatives

If you are booked on India Gulf flights in the last week of November, start by checking your airline's app or website rather than assuming your original itinerary is intact. Look for schedule change emails, text messages, or app notifications, and confirm both flight numbers and aircraft types, since some carriers may substitute different jets while their usual aircraft are inspected.

For travelers with tight connections in Gulf hubs such as Dubai International Airport (DXB), Abu Dhabi International Airport (AUH), King Abdulaziz International Airport (JED), Kuwait International Airport (KWI), and Sharjah International Airport (SHJ), adding at least three hours of buffer between arrival and onward departure will reduce the risk of misconnects. Where possible, avoid separate tickets that require exiting and re clearing security or immigration, because those will be hardest for airlines to protect if your inbound segment is late.

If your flight is cancelled because of ash related rerouting, Indian carriers are generally offering rebooking at no extra cost on the next available service, or full refunds when suitable alternatives do not exist. Travelers who need to reach destinations beyond the Gulf, for example onward to Europe or North America, may find better options by asking airlines to reroute via alternative hubs that sit clear of the ash affected corridors, such as Doha, Riyadh, or Istanbul, subject to seat availability and fare rules.

Those still in the planning stage for late November and early December trips between India and the Gulf can assume that normal patterns will resume, but it remains smart to build modest connection buffers, avoid the tightest possible layovers, and keep flexible fare options where budgets allow, in case follow on operational issues persist.

Internal Links

Travelers who need a broader view of how this disruption evolved can review Adept Traveler's earlier alert, Ethiopia Ash Cloud Reroutes India Gulf Flights, which covers the initial wave of diversions and safety advisories.

For a deeper dive into why ash clouds affect aviation the way they do, and how to plan around future events, see our explainer, Volcanic Ash Flight Disruptions, What Travelers Should Know.