Civil Aviation Authority – Pakistan has reopened the Pakistani airspace for all types of civil air traffic after the partial ban since February 2019 with immediate effect.
Official notice published on the website read, “With immediate effect, Pakistan airspace is open for all type of civil traffic on published ATS (Air Traffic Service) routes,”.
Aviation Secretary said in a briefing to the Senate Standing Committee on Aviation that Indian request to reopen the closed airspace was responded with a message to clear its airbases of fighter planes near the border. He said that “The Indian government had asked us to open the airspace. We conveyed our concerns that first India must withdraw its fighter planes placed forward. We are ready to open our airspace if India de-escalates.”
The partial ban was last extended by CAA in June. Initially, it was imposed on 27 February when two Indian fighter jets intruded in Pakistani airspace and both were engaged and destroyed in a dogfight with Pakistan Air-Force. For the time being, operations were completely shut down, but later the local airports resumed with the said restrictions.
Due to the ban, PIA also suffered loses as the passengers had to take a connecting flight from Gulf to reach Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok. On the other hand, the Indian aviation industry occurred much more losses because the flights had to take a longer route than usual to avoid the suspended area by Pakistan.
United Airlines had also suspended their flight operations from the United States to Delhi and Mumbai, and the airline just announced to further extend the suspension due to the restrictions imposed on Pakistani airspace. With the said reopening, flight operations from the US to India could be resumed and other flights which had to reroute due to the ban could also be re-continued.