Pakistan extends airspace closure on Indian border till June 15

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has extended the closure of its airspace along its eastern border with arch-rival India until June 15, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said on Thursday, impacting hundreds of commercial and cargo flights each day and adding flight time for passengers and fuel costs for airlines.
Foreign carriers and commercial airlines of India have been forced to take costly detours due to Pakistan’s airspace closure. The shutdown mainly affects flights from Europe to Southeast Asia.
The decision to close the airspace for all commercial flights came in February after the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) shot down an Indian fighter jet for violating the country’s airspace before capturing one of its pilots.
The nuclear-armed neighbors stepped back from the brink of war after a suicide bombing in Indian-administered Kashmir on February 14 in which over 40 Indian paramilitary troops were killed. India accused a Pakistan-based militant organization for the attack. Islamabad denies any state complicity.
“It is a decision of the government to keep the airspace closed for commercial flights and we are observing it without any relaxation,” CAA spokesperson Farah Hussain told Arab News on Thursday.
She admitted the closure was causing financial losses for both Pakistan and India, but declined to share the exact amount of loss incurred thus far. “This is classified information and we cannot reveal it to the media,” she said.
She also declined to say when the airspace would be fully opened again.
In a rare exception to the airspace ban, Pakistan allowed Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to fly directly though Pakistani airspace to participate in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Foreign Ministers meet in Bishkek earlier this month.
Hussain said the airspace ban for flights to India was first extended till May 30, but had now been further extended to June 15.
Sohail Baloch, a former president of the Pakistan Airlines Pilots Association, said that it was a “strategic decision” of the Pakistan government to keep the airspace shut because India was suffering over ten times more in financial losses compared to Pakistan.
“Indian commercial flights have to take longer routes and they are suffering huge financial losses,” he told Arab News. “I don’t see the opening of our airspace for international flights until both Pakistan and India agree to normalize the situation on the border.”
Indian experts blame the lack of trust between both the nations for the airspace closure.
“If Islamabad is hurting India [through airspace closure], it is also hurting itself in the process,” V. K. Mathur, a member of the Indian Civil Aviation Ministry and Confederation of Indian Industry, told Arab News.
He said the shutdown had nothing to do with security as private commercial aircraft could easily be identified by air traffic control through a technical process.
“This is an economic loss to both the countries …. this is a pointless battle,” he added.
Captain Harinder Singh, former commercial manager for Air India Limited, said Pakistan’s airspace closure was hurting Indian commercial flights in a “big way” due to long detours. “It is a huge loss for all our west-bound flights,” he said.