Indian airlines Air India and Akasa Air said on Tuesday they were cancelling some flights after ash plumes from a volcanic eruption in Ethiopia disrupted operations.
Air India said it had cancelled 11 flights on Monday and Tuesday to make precautionary checks on aircraft that had flown over some locations after the eruption, following a directive to airlines from India's aviation regulator.
Smaller peer Akasa said it had scrapped scheduled flights with Middle East destinations such as Jeddah, Kuwait and Abu Dhabi scheduled during the two days.
The ash cloud is moving towards China and is expected to clear Indian skies by 1400 GMT Tuesday, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said in a statement.
Ethiopia's Hayli Gubbi volcano sent ash plumes up to 14 km high after erupting on Sunday for the first time in recorded history, according to media reports.
On Tuesday, the ash had covered parts of Pakistan and northern India, according to tracking website Flightradar24, after crossing Yemen and Oman.
Britain is working with allies on a range of options to support commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz in the face of Iranian threats, Prime Minister Keir Starmer's spokesperson said on Tuesday as the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran roils oil prices.
Australia on Tuesday granted humanitarian visas to five Iranian women soccer players after they sought asylum, fearing persecution on their return home for their refusal to sing the national anthem at an Asia Cup match.
The humanitarian crisis in Lebanon has deepened amid the wider Middle East war, with 84 children killed and more than 667,000 people displaced, two UN agencies said on Tuesday.
Iran is fighting back but is not tougher than the U.S. military expected before the war, the top U.S. general told reporters on Tuesday, as the Pentagon promised its most intense day of strikes in the 10-day-old conflict.