CAA says airspace partially restored

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) announced partially restoring Pakistan''s airspace after keeping it closed for several hours on Wednesday.
"Pakistani airspace has partially been restored, starting with Jinnah International Airport of Karachi. The following flights have departed, WY324 KHI MCT and EK601 KHI DXB," the CAA announced in a tweet. "North East & North Western airspace remains closed until further notice," it added. Earlier, Pakistan''s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) declared aerial emergency by suspending flight operations across major airports of Pakistan, following Pakistan Air Force (PAF) shot down two Indian fighter jets along the Line of Control (LoC).
The flight operations have been temporarily suspended at Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa airports. According to the CAA, Pakistani airspace has officially been closed for commercial flights.
The CAA spokesperson while talking to Business Recorder said that flights which were within the airspace of Pakistan were allowed to land and then once the airspace got seized, flights were sent back. An official of CAA said that the airspace might get open once the situation gets better and probably it will be opened by today (Thursday) whereas the flight operations are partially open in Karachi.
The Authority made the announcement on Twitter after the director general of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) acknowledged the closure of Pakistan''s airspace due to the prevailing security situation. At the time of CAA''s announcement, Pakistani airspace, according to Flight Radar 24 - a global flight tracking service - was almost entirely empty. According to another official of the CAA, flight operations have been suspended at Karachi, Peshawar, Multan, Faisalabad, Sialkot and New Islamabad International Airports.
All incoming and outgoing local and international flights have been suspended until further orders, he added. An incoming flight from Guangzhou, China, was also sent back. International flights that transit between Indian and Pakistani airspace have also been affected with some flights returning to origin while others appear to be seeking alternate routes.
Furthermore, the sources said that a passenger airplane was stopped from taking off from Bacha Khan International Airport in Peshawar on the orders of the CAA.
Gulf Air and Emirates Airlines have released statements, saying all flights to and from Pakistan have been suspended with immediate effect due to the closure of Pakistani airspace.
Meanwhile, India has also shut at least four airports after the incident. Flight operations at Srinagar, Jammu, Pathankot and Leh airports have been suspended. Airports in Chandigarh and Amritsar have also been closed.