Readers booked on flights between SE Asia and Europe (or vice versa) in the coming hours and days must check their flight status.

It’s a changing situation but information posted on airline websites (under flight status) and by sites such as Flightradar24 show that many flights are being diverted away from affected Pakistani/Indian airspace.

What it means that some flights are having to make en route refuelling stops and this means journey times will be extended.

It’s especially a problem out of SE Asia where flights do not normally take more northerly routings over Russia.

For example when we checked with Cathay Pacific its flights arriving into Heathrow today from Hong Kong were punctual.

But airlines flying from SE Asia to Europe will be making refuelling stops.  Therefore they will arrive in Europe one or more hours later and so passengers may miss any connections they have booked.

Visit Singapore Airlines’ website (see ‘flight status’) for Singapore-London today it shows SQ308 making an en route stop in Dubai.  While SQ318 is having to stop in Mumbai and is now shown as arriving into Heathrow with a three hour delay.

Two Air France flights (one from Bangkok and one from Saigon (Vietnam) are shown on @flightradar24 as diverting to Bucharest for refuelling.  It’s also believed a KLM flight will join them today at Bucharest.

Airspace in and around the Gulf region is also congested at present.

We asked British Airways for a comment and it said, “We are monitoring the situation closely. Our flight plans vary frequently depending on a number of factors, but our highest and first priority is always the safety of our customers and crew.”

Further updates to follow as and when available.

ba.com, singaporeair.comairfrance.com, klm.com, flightradar24.com