I am currently in a flight from Tashkent (UTTT) to Kuala Lumpur (WMKK) and this flight would normally fly over Afghanistan Airspace, however I am aware that there is war going on in Afghanistan, and SimBrief gave me flight plan avoiding Afghanistan.
However when I googled the restrictions it said that some commercial flights did fly over Afghanistan.
Now I am wondering if I should avoid Afghanistan and continue my FPL:
At present, I would avoid any airspace that may endanger the passengers. I think it would depend on which airline you are flying, but to be safe and realistic, I would avoid it.
However, you can do whatever you want as long as it’s within IF’s rules.
Afghan airspace is very commonly used in long-hauls from Europe to (South) Asia. I am aware that some carriers (I believe mostly American) are not flying through Afghan airspace, but major European carriers regularly do, as can be seen on Flightradar24.
If you want to do it realistically please check out Skyvector.com and their „World Hi“ map as there are only some clearly set in advance routes across Afghanistan, which can be used.
There is an ongoing war in Afghanistan, which since NATO’s withdrawal in December 2014, has been fought between the state and several factions. Diversion/Landing to Afghanistan – don’t. Nowhere is safe. Overflight advice averages out at a minimum FL250, though as with other mountainous countries we think FL320 is a better starting point. There are comms issues in the Kabul FIR – long periods without ATC contact is possible. Monitor TCAS and Air-to-Air channels.
Typically I plan using skyvector outside US and Canada becaise direct routings are less common. I just mimic the route of the last flight. As a bonus you can export .fpl directly to IF via garmin export.
