Costly detours

The country’s airspace closure has entered a third month amid the ongoing hostility between Pakistan and India post Pulwama saga. Both sides closed the airspaces for each as cross border tension escalated. While Pakistan opened its airspace after a month for most flights, the ban continued not only for flights to and from Far East including Malaysia, Thailand and India, but also for the use of airspace by foreign airlines coming from the east

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The airspace closure that was reassessed on May15 has been extended further till May 30, 2019. While the lifting of the ban totally depends on bilateral relations between the two countries, the two sides are incurring huge losses on account of hefty fuel bills for airlines; higher tariffs for the customers, increased flight times; and in some cases loss of passengers, routes and foreign airline operations.

The country is losing on the hefty over flight fee that according to some estimates is running over a billion rupees since the closure of airspace for overlying from the eastern to western air corridors that accounts for over 60 percent of the total over flight charges. Apart from that, the national carrier, PIA that was conducting 4 flights to Kuala Lumpur, and a couple of flight to Bangkok and Delhi is also suffering billions of losses on account of discontinuation of flights to these destinations.

The losses are not limited to Pakistan’s aviation sector. The impact on the India side is much more as Pakistan is an important aviation corridor. Flights from Central Asia to India are taking up 4 hours longer than normal, and some international airlines have suspended flights as longer flight times have made it unsustainable for the carriers to continue on the routes. Similarly flights to and from Europe and the West are also being routed through longer paths. These all have resulted in higher fuel cost, lower baggage allowance on international flights (to carry more fuel) and thus higher tariffs for the customers. Media reports also suggest that Air India alone has incurred losses of $3 billion in the wake of the airspace restrictions so far.

The resolution of the ban depends highly what stance the new government in India takes. The recent extension in the closure of Pakistan’s airspace was expected as the results of India’s Lok Sabha elections are due on May 23, 2019. And the lifting of the ban might go beyond May 30 – until some meaningful dialogue between the two countries.