Tuesday, July 16, 2019

Flights to get shoirter as Pakistan opens airspace

New Delhi: In a huge relief for Indian travellers, flights between Delhi and the west will see travel times drop by up to four hours while Air India’s flights to US will once again be nonstop. This follows Pakistan's decision to finally reopen its airspace for overflying after 140 days.
Ever since Pakistan closed its airspace on February 27 after the Indian Air Force’s strike on the Balakot teror camp, Indian flights to the west were forced to take a much longer route. That meant greater travel time (including a fuelling stop for US flights) and a huge spike in expenses for airlines. Just a few days ago, Pakistan had said it would reopen its airspace only after India removed its fighter aircraft from forward bases, which seemed to indicate a prolonged delay.
However, Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authority issued a notice to airmen (NOTAM) at 12.41am (India time) that said, “With immediate effect Pakistan airspace is open for all type of civil traffic on published ATS (air traffic service) routes.” Air India’s San Francisco-Delhi flight AI 184 — one of the longest non-stops globally — was the first by an Indian carrier to enter Pakistan airspace on its way to Delhi after February 27.
SpiceJet’s Jaipur-Dubai SG 57 was among the first to enter Pakistan airspace from the Indian side on Tuesday morning while flying westwards.
In a statement, AI said: “As Pakistan airspace is now open, aircraft utilisation will go up while crew requirement will fall by 25%. Operating cost for US-bound flights will drop by Rs 20 lakh one way and for Europe-bound flights by Rs 5 lakh. From Tuesday-Wednesday night flight operation may (return to route taken) before closure of Pakistani airspace.”
IndiGo is also working on finally making its Delhi-Istanbul flight direct. So far, it has been taking a stop in Doha on both ways. An IndiGo official said: “It will become a direct flight by flying over Pakistan, Afghanistan and Caspian Sea. This route will allow us to avoid flying over the waters of Iran along the Persian Gulf-Strait of Hormuz-Gulf of Oman (US has disallowed its airlines from overflying and India has asked its airlines to avoid this stretch).”
16/07/19 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India
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