Pakistan has opened one of its 11 air routes for west-bound flights from India and Air India has started using it, said a senior central government official Saturday.
“Pakistan has been opening its airspace in tranches. OnThursday, it opened one of the 11 routes for west-bound flights. Therefore,airlines such as Air India and Turkish Airlines have started using it,” hesaid.
Even though the route P518 was opened on Thursday evening,American airline company United Airlines announced on Friday its flightconnecting Newark and Delhi has been suspended for two weeks.
Pakistan had kept its airspace fully closed after Indian airstrike in Balakot on February 26.
However, Pakistan on March 27, opened its airspace for allflights except for Bangkok, New Delhi and Kuala Lumpur.
“Since the route P518, that has been opened, passesover south Pakistan, the air travel time for west-bound flights from Delhi willnot decrease substantially,” the official clarified.
Since February 26, many foreign airlines have suspendedtheir Delhi-bound flights as it was commercially unviable for them to take alonger route through Mumbai airspace.
The operating cost for Air India, which flies to destinationsin Europe and the US, has increased significantly as it had to take longerroutes due to closure of Pakistani airspace.
The Delhi-Washington and Delhi-Chicago flights of thenational carrier had been making a stop at Mumbai and Vienna for refuelling andchange of crew.
Air India on March 15 requested its “inactive”crew members to “immediately” join work as the airline had beenforced to cancel and reroute a number of US and Europe-bound flights due toclosure of Pakistani airspace.
The airline had on March 14 announced it would combine theMumbai-New York flight with its Mumbai-Newark flight from March 16 to May 31.
On March 13, it announced the suspension of flights on theDelhi-Madrid and Delhi-Birmingham routes from March 16 “till further notice”due to “operational reasons”.
Since Pakistan’s airspace closure, the airfare on manyroutes have gone up significantly, including Delhi-Kabul, Delhi-Moscow,Delhi-Tehran and Delhi-Astana.
An Afghanistan government official told Civil AviationSecretary PS Kharola on April 3, at a public event in New Delhi, that theticket price on Delhi-Kabul route and Kabul-Delhi route, which is usuallyaround USD 300, has increased to around USD 700.
The Afghan official said two Indian airline companies — Air India and SpiceJet — have already stopped their Delhi-Kabul flights due to Pakistan airspace closure.