Pakistan reopens airspace for India

Normal air traffic operations between India and Pakistan resumed on Tuesday with Islamabad opening its airspace for all civilian flights, nearly four-and-a-half months after shutting it down following the Balakot air strikes.

Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authority issued a notice toairmen (NOTAM) at 12.41 am (IST), stating that the country’s airspace has beenopened with immediate effect for all types of civil traffic on “publishedATS (air traffic service) routes”.

   

Following Pakistan’s move, India also issued a “revisedNOTAM”, announcing that normal air traffic operations have resumed betweenthe two countries.  “Consequent toPakistan issuing NOTAM to lift all airspace restrictions, relevant authoritieshave informed that India has also issued revised NOTAM immediately thereafter.With this, normal air traffic operations have resumed through all FlightInformation Regions between India and Pakistan,” a government source toldPTI.

Hours later, India’s Civil Aviation ministry said flightshad started using the closed air routes, bringing great relief to airlines andair passengers.

“After cancellation of NOTAMS by Pakistan and India inthe early hours today, there are no restrictions on airspaces of bothcountries, flights have started using the closed air routes, bringing asignificant relief for airlines,” the Twitter handle of the ministry said.

“This is great news. A big relief to airpassengers,” it added.

The move is expected to give major relief to Air India,which suffered a financial loss of around Rs 491 crore as it had to re-routevarious international flights due to the closure of Pakistan airspace.

“Pakistan has permitted all airlines to fly through itsairspace from around 12.41 am today. Indian airline operators will start usingnormal routes through Pakistan airspace soon,” the sources said.

Pakistan fully closed its airspace on February 26 after theIndian Air Force (IAF) jets carried out airstrikes   at Balakot in retaliation for the Pulwamaattack on February 14 this year. The neighbouring country only opened two of 11routes after that, both passing through the southern region.

On its part, the IAF announced on 31 May that all temporaryrestrictions imposed on Indian airspace post the Balakot strike had beenremoved. However, this did not benefit most commercial airliners and they werewaiting for Pakistan to fully open its airspace.

While the national carrier lost Rs 491 crore till July 2 dueto the closure of the Pakistan airspace, private airlines SpiceJet, IndiGo andGoAir lost Rs 30.73 crore, Rs 25.1 crore and Rs 2.1 crore, respectively,according to data presented by Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri inthe RajyaSabha on 3 July.

Following the air strike, Air India had to re-route, mergeor suspend many of its international flights that connect India with Europeanand US cities.

IndiGo, India’s largest airline by domestic market share,was unable to start direct flights from Delhi to Istanbul due to the closure ofthe Pakistan airspace.

The low-cost carrier started flying the Delhi-Istanbul route in March. It had to take the longer route over the Arabian Sea and make a stop at Doha in Qatar for refuelling. Pakistan Aviation Secretary ShahrukhNusrat had earlier informed a parliamentary panel that Pakistan would not move the ban until India removed its jets from forward bases. PTI

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

16 + six =