ISLAMABAD – Restrictions over large swathes of Pakistani airspace continuedto affect numerous flight routes, officials said Tuesday, weeks afterclashes between Pakistan and India brought the nuclear-armed rivals to thebrink of war.
The continued constraints come weeks after Pakistani authorities said theyhad fully reopened the country’s airspace after it was closed for daysfollowing clashes and aerial dogfights between the two countries late lastmonth.
“All entry and exit points to and from India remain closed,” a seniorPakistan official told AFP on the condition of anonymity, saying thedecision to keep portions of the country’s airspace closed was revieweddaily by authorities.
The closure of large swathes of the eastern airspace effectively shuts offmajor international flight routes in and out of Islamabad and Lahore alongwith select domestic routes. “At least seven domestic and fourinternational destinations are suspended,” Pakistan International Airlinesspokesperson Mashud Tajwar said.
The national carrier’s operations to India, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur haveall been suspended for nearly a month causing heavy losses to the alreadystruggling airline. “We can’t give an off-hand estimate of the losses butyes the losses have been occurring for sure,” Tajwar told AFP.
Aviation experts said the ongoing restrictions have also affected Indianflights headed west over Pakistan. “Indian airlines are suffering much morecompared to Pakistan because their westward operations are much bigger,”said Sajid Habib, a former chief of state-run Civil Aviation Authority.
Read Top Stories
Information from online flight tracker flightradar24 showed no flightsalong the border between the two countries.
The crisis between the countries was first sparked by a suicide bombing inIndian-administered Kashmir last month that killed at least 40 Indiansecurity personnel and was later reportedly claimed by Jaish-e-Mohammad.
Days later India responded with a cross-border air raid on Pakistan thatkicked off a quick succession of attacks and dogfights between thearch-rivals over the disputed Kashmir frontier that spurred fears of widerwar erupting. – APP/AFP
