It’s not just Indian airlines travelling West which are having to fly longer and incur more costs because of the overflight ban over Pakistan.
Many leading Western carriers are now voluntarily avoiding Pakistani airspace, although they do not face such a ban.
At the end of the day, Pakistan’s aerospace authority stands to lose millions of dollars every month for overflight fees that it charges from airlines using its airspace.
For the last two days, Lufthansa, British Airways, Swiss, Air France, ITA of Italy and LOT of Poland are some of the leading European carriers that voluntarily avoided Pakistani airspace because of the tension between India and Pakistan.
This means that flights between Europe and India are, on average, about an hour longer.
Ultimately, airlines may pass on the cost of more fuel to passengers – though it’s unclear when that will happen.
According to reports, Air India may end up losing $600 million annually because it cannot overfly Pakistan.
Significantly, Pakistan’s Civil Aviation authority can lose hundreds of millions annually on overflight charges on an annual basis.
In February 2019, after India’s airstrike on a terror camp in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir’s Balakot, the Pakistani authority lost at least $100 million over a period of five months due to an airspace ban for airlines.
Indian airlines may be suffering, but key international operators who chose to avoid Pakistani airspace will not be paying Pakistan either for use of their airspace. For Pakistan, the tension with India is a lose-lose situation.
The Centre for Asia-Pacific Aviation (CAPA) said Indian carriers being denied overflight rights over Pakistani airspace are sustaining extra expenses of $70-80 million per month.
Indian airlines yesterday submitted their inputs on the impact of the Pakistan airspace closure to the civil aviation ministry. The airlines including Air India, IndiGo and SpiceJet have given their inputs and suggestions to the ministry, news agency PTI reported.
Pakistan banned its airspace to Indian flights after India took steps against that country over the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam that killed 26 tourists. India also responded by banning Pakistani flights from Indian airspace.
