NEW DELHI: Pakistan’s closure of its airspace to Indian flights has forced these flights to take a longer route to reach their destinations in North America, the UK, Europe and the Middle East.
Passengers will be forced to spend a longer time inside their flights and reach their destinations late. Fare hikes are likely but until Friday night no airline was ready to comment on this matter.
Meanwhile, Indigo has cancelled its routes to Almaty in Kazakhstan and Tashkent in Uzbekistan until May 7.
A Civil Aviation Ministry source told this newspaper, “Flights will now have to take the route over the Arabian Sea. There is no other option. It will definitely take much longer for passengers and cost overheads for airlines before the destinations are reached.”
The longish route to be taken and the fuel cost involved have not found much favourwith the airlines, the source said. “Representatives of airlines have been busy lobbying with the Civil Aviation ministry seeking incentives to operate international flights along the extended route,” he said.
The same was done by the airlines after the Pulwama attacks in 2019 when Pakistan closed its airspace, he added. Air India, Indigo, Air India Express, Spice jet and Akasa Air are among the airlines set to be impacted by the move.
A statement from Indigo said, “Due to the closure of Pakistan’s airspace, approximately 50 international routes operated by IndiGo will require longer sectors and hence may be subject to some slight schedule adjustments.
With the same restrictions and limited rerouting options, unfortunately Almaty and Tashkent are outside the operational range of IndiGo’s current fleet.” Hence flights to Almaty stand cancelled from 27th of April until at least 7th of May and to Tashkent from 28th of April until 7th May 2025.”
A Spicejet spokesperson said, “Our flights to the UAE from North India will operate via alternate routes. As a result, these flights will carry additional fuel to account for the longer flying time.”
Alternative extended flight route
Urging passengers to expect delays, Air India stated on X: “Due to the announced restriction of Pakistan airspace for all Indian airlines, it is expected that some Air India flights to or from North America, UK Europe and Middles East will take an alternative extended route. “