Pak airspace closure may impact over 800 weekly flights of airlines

WITH PAKISTAN CLOSING its airspace to Indian airlines from Thursday evening, over 800 flights a week are likely to be impacted by longer flight times, increased fuel burn, and a few other complexities related to crew and flight scheduling, all of which would increase operational costs.

- SUKALP SHARMA

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, adding anywhere between 15 minutes to a few hours to the journey, depending on the distance and the location of the destination.

Meanwhile, the Indian carriers are working to adjust their schedules to factor in the ban from Pakistani airspace. On Friday, IndiGo announced the suspension of its daily flights from Delhi to Almaty and Tashkent in Central Asia from April 27 and April 28 until "at least" May 7.

The airline said that with the airspace restrictions imposed by Pakistan and limited rerouting options, both the Central Asian cities are now outside the operational range of its existing fleet of narrow-body aircraft.