Several Air India flights cancelled due to maintenance, bad weather, and airspace restrictions

The cancellation of several Air India flights, as reported on June 20, 2025, aligns with a recent crash of an Air India Dreamliner on June 12, 2025, in Ahmedabad, prompting heightened maintenance checks and airspace restrictions, with the damaged black box now sent to the US for analysis, revealing one engine was newly installed in March 2025.

Bad weather disruptions are supported by aviation safety data from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, indicating that conditions like fog and thunderstorms can halt operations, a factor likely exacerbated in India by the monsoon season peaking around this time, reducing visibility and runway usability.

Airspace restrictions, possibly linked to geopolitical tensions (e.g., Iran's airspace closure and Pakistan's ongoing ban on Indian flights since 2019), force longer routes, increasing fuel costs by up to 20% per flight, as noted in a 2025 IEA report on aviation economics, challenging Air India's operational efficiency.