- Indian carriers suffer strong losses from redirium.
- Air India demands compensation in the midst of the growing losses.
- The main Indian routes severely affected by the closure.
Karachi: Pakistan has decided to extend the closure of his airspace for Indian flights in another month.
According to the sources, the decision is expected to be announced today (Wednesday) or tomorrow. After this, a notice will be issued to aviators (Notam).
Under the rules of the International Organization of the Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the airspace restrictions cannot be imposed for more than one month at a time, which requires periodic extensions.
The decision followed a meeting of the National Security Committee (NSC) earlier this month, where Pakistan resolved to block Indian flights after India took provocative measures after pahalgama. Restrictions apply to both commercial and military aircraft.
The extension occurs amid high tensions between the two neighbors of nuclear weapons after Pahalgam’s attack in April, which resulted in the death of 26 tourists in illegally occupied Indians Jammu and Kashmira (Iiojk).
India had unilaterally closed his airspace to Pakistani flights on April 23, which caused a reciprocal prohibition of Islamabad the next day. India then took several other measures against Pakistan.
Later, from May 6 to 7, India launched attacks not caused in multiple Pakistani cities. In response, the Pakistan armed forces launched a large-scale retaliation military action, called “Bunyan-Mou-Marshus Operation”, and attacked several Indian military objectives in multiple regions on May 10.
Pakistan’s response led to the mobilization of global powers, after which the fire was reached, which remains intact.
While the Indian aviation industry has faced great losses, the impact on Pakistani aviation has been minimal. With only one flight to the east redirected through China and limited operations in the Far East, the Pakistan aviation sector is not greatly affected.
This is not the first time that Pakistan imposes such restrictions. Airspace closures were previously promulgated during the 1999 Kargil conflict and the 2019 pulwama crisis, both cases in which India faced higher aviation interruptions than Pakistan.
Financial coup to Indian airlines
According to sources, Indian airlines have suffered losses greater than RS8 billion only in the last month. These include RS5 billion in additional fuel costs and RS3 billion in incurred expenses due to scales forced by long -distance flights.
The sources point out that Indian carriers operating Boeing 777 and Airbus A320 family aircraft have had to endure 2 to 4 hours of extra flight time per trip. With approximately 150 redirected flights daily, fuel consumption has increased dramatically.
Experts estimate that a Boeing 777 consumes about 6,668 kilograms of fuel per hour, while an Airbus A319, A320 or A321 uses around 2,400 kilograms per hour. At the average current advanced price of $ 0.82 per kilogram, Indian airlines are spending almost $ 557,625 daily only in additional fuel. That amounts to more than 5 billion rupees in losses related to fuel in a month.
In addition, extended travel times have caused limitations of the crew service, which requires changes in the crew in transit airports. These scales also involve additional costs due to landing fees, refueling and airport services. In the last 30 days, such expenses related to the scale have totaled between RS2.5 and RS3 billion.
According to the reports, Air India is the airline of the worst of the blows and has requested the financial support of the Indian government. Other airlines, including Akasa Air, Spicejet, Indigo and Air India Express, have also faced operational interruptions.
The original flights of Amritsar, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Jaipur are now forced to cross longer western routes over the Arabic sea. These deviations affect flights to destinations in North America, Europe and the Middle East.
The sources have indicated that if the prohibition continues and the Indian government does not provide special assistance, Indian airlines may be forced to take extraordinary measures to maintain operations.
