Air travel thrown out of gear as Pakistan closes airspace to commercial flights

Hyderabad: The closure of Pakistan’s airspace to commercial flights on Wednesday forced dozens of airlines to reroute their aircraft to reach their destinations, burning more oil and cash.

The airspace will be reopened on Friday. Pakistan on Thursday temporarily restored airspace for commercial aviation, allowing three flights to depart.

Though the airspace was closed by Pakistan on account of worsening relations with India, the move has affected international flights between Asia-Pacific and Europe.

Most Europe-bound flights from Asia-Pacific and South Asia and vice-versa fly over India and Pakistan air space. Following the Pakistani ban on commercial flights over its airspace, the flights have to take longer routes.

Various airlines, such as Air India, Jet Airways, Qatar Airways and Singapore Airlines, announced rerouting of their flights.

According to a website that tracks commercial flights, the decision affected at least 33 West-bound flights flying from South Asia and Asia-Pacific. The most impacted was Thai Airways, which cancelled nearly 30 flights to Europe, affecting 5,000 passengers.

“By closing the airspace, every flight from Thailand to Europe has been hit. For flights that are going to depart this evening, we will call an urgent meeting to consider the impact of such events,” Thai Airways said in a statement.

With the Mumbai sector getting crowded after the ban, the Bangkok-based airline suspended all its flights to Europe.

Swedish real-time commercial aircraft flight tracker FlightRadar24 showed crowding of the sky over the Arabian Sea after the Pakistan ban.

Singapore Airlines was forced to direct flights to Europe to refuel, while a flight to Frankfurt was cancelled.

Airports Authority of India has said that due to the closure of Pakistani airspace, air traffic was significantly heavy over the Mumbai region on Wednesday night.

The ban would primarily hurt the finances of an already bleeding aviation industry in South Asia and Asia Pacific.