Pakistan reopens airspace for all civilian traffic, closed since Balakot strike

Islamabad, July.16(HS): 140 days after the Balakot air strikes, Pakistan has opened its airspace on Tuesday. In a notice issued by the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority, it was stated that with immediate effect Pakistan Airspace has been opened for all types of civilian traffic. With this step Air India is expected to get big relief.

Pakistani airspace had been discontinued for Indian flights due to the growing tensions between India and Pakistan after the suicide bomb blast in Pulwama, Jammu and Kashmir on February 14. With the increase in the flying time of the flights flying from New Delhi, Air India suffered a loss of six million rupees per day due to the increased fuel consumption and increase in employee expenditure and decrease in the frequency of flights.

This airspace closure has led to huge losses for carriers flying to the west of India as well as other international carriers too that fly to the west of India.The flight time due to the airspace closure has increased by 45 to 90 minutes depending on the aircraft type and others. The Indian carriers have lost about Rs 550 crore till the middle of June due to this airspace closure. A large losse of Rs 491 crore – has been made to the national carrier Air India.

Due to the ban on Pakistani airspace, Air India flight now takes two to three hours to travel from New Delhi to the US. At the same time, Europe’s flights take about two hours more, causing financial loss. Pakistan had fully closed its airspace on February 26 after the Indian Air Force (IAF) struck a training camp in Balakot in retaliation to the Pulwama attack on February 14.