Pahalgam attack aftermath india closes airspace for all pakistani aircraft

Pahalgam attack aftermath india closes airspace for all pakistani aircraft

India has closed its airspace for Pakistani aircraft, days after a similar move by the neighbouring country in the wake of the Pahalgam terror attack. The Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) communicating this decision, issued on Wednesday evening, states that India’s airspace will not be available for Pakistan-registered aircraft and planes operated, owned, or leased by Pakistani airlines and operators, including military flights. The ban will be in place till the early morning of May 24, as per the current NOTAM.

On April 24, Pakistan had closed its airspace for Indian aircraft and airlines after New Delhi’s strong diplomatic moves in response to the terror attack. Pakistan’s move is slated to affect over 800 West-bound international flights a week operated by Indian airlines from Northern Indian airports. These flights now face longer flight times, increased fuel burn, and a few other complexities related to crew and flight scheduling, an analysis of airlines’ schedule data shows.

All these flights were routinely flying over Pakistan on their way to various destinations to the west of India. The initial impact is already visible, with Indian airlines’ flights from North India to West Asia, the Caucasus, Europe, the UK, and North America’s eastern region switching from their routine paths to longer routes. Moreover, a number of Air India’s ultra-long-haul flights to and from North America are now taking technical halts – planned stops for refuelling or crew change – at European airports, breaking the journey of the otherwise non-stop flights.

The impact of India’s airspace closure is unlikely to be as significant because, unlike India’s booming aviation sector, Pakistan’s struggling flag carrier, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), has a limited international footprint, and that too largely to the west of the country.

According to airline schedule data from aviation analytics company Cirium, PIA operates just six flights a week – to and from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, from Lahore and Islamabad – that were routinely flying over India. And since tensions between India and Pakistan escalated last week following the terror attack, these flights were avoiding Indian airspace, taking a longer and circuitous route to Kuala Lumpur through the airspaces of China and other Southeast Asian countries, as per flight tracking data.

The Pakistani flag carrier has not been operating flights to any other country for which it would need to fly over Indian airspace. It does operate flights to China, but those take a northerly flight path, allowing them to enter Chinese airspace from Pakistani airspace directly. No other Pakistani airline operates any flight to the east of the country.