NEW DELHI: India has temporarily suspended Iranian carriers from flying here due to the rapid outbreak of coronavirus in Iran. While no Indian carrier flies to Iran, two airlines from Tehran — Iran Air and Mahan Air — fly to India. Iran Air has flights to Mumbai and Mahan Air to Delhi. Together they have five flights a week.“This temporary restriction has been placed from Thursday as coronavirus has spread in a big way in Iran. This is a purely temporary move. We are constantly reviewing the situation,” said a senior official.Meanwhile Saudi Arabia on Thursday temporarily banned entry of foreign pilgrims to its Muslim holy sites to prevent spread of coronavirus epidemic. Saudi has put the temporary ban on Umrah pilgrims and on foreign pilgrims visiting Mecca and Medina. It has suspended visas for tourists from countries with confirmed coronavirus cases, including India.This is a big blow to airlines flying pilgrims between India and Saudi like Air India, IndiGo and SpiceJet and Saudia. These airlines operate about 100 flights a week to Jeddah, with almost half the passengers being pilgrims. Saudi Arabia is the second biggest destination for flyers from India, after UAE thanks to the large pilgrim traffic.“The Saudi ban on foreign pilgrims in wake of corona is going to affect all Indian and Gulf carriers, except Qatar Airways (due to blockade it is not allowed to fly to Saudi among many places in the region),” said a travel industry insider.IndiGo Tweeted: “In view of coronavirus, kingdom of Saudi Arabia has temporarily suspended entry of non-Saudis into the kingdom with tourist visa and for the purpose of Umrah till further notice. Full refund will be processed for impacted passengers booked to travel to Riyadh, Dammam and Jeddah.”