Civil Aviation Authority of Pakistan has announced to stretch out the partial airspace ban for flights to India till 28 June. The ban has been extended quite a few times since it was imposed on 26 February.
Flight operations to Delhi, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Sri Lanka and Urumqi will continue to be affected due to the suspension. The decision would be effective until the announcement of the next order by CAA.
The airspace ban since 26 February was imposed due to the violation of Indian Air-Force’s jets of the International boundaries. On 27 February, India lost their two jets who intruded into Pakistani airspace, while one pilot ‘Wing Commander Abhinandan’ was arrested by Pakistan Army, who was later released.
Indian Prime Minister Modi, also avoided the use of Pakistani airspace while flying to Bishkek for the SCO Summit. However, special permission requested by the Indian Government for the VVIP Aircraft to fly over Pakistan was accepted by the Pakistani authorities, still, the plane took an alternative route to reach the destination.
Due to the ban, PIA is facing loses as the passengers have to take a connecting flight from Gulf to reach Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok. On the other hand, the Indian aviation industry is incurring much more losses because the flights have to take a longer route than usual to avoid the suspended area by Pakistan.
Indian flights to Russia take additional hours, while flights to Afghanistan and Iran take twofold duration to reach the destinations, costing more money and time to the passengers. Air India has incurred massive losses and it has asked the Indian Aviation to make good the loss.