India and Pakistan closed their airspace for another month!
India and Pakistan have extended the ban on flights over each other’s airspace for another month, according to India Today.
Following the escalation of tensions between India and Pakistan after the April 22 attack on a group of tourists in Indian-controlled Kashmir, Islamabad closed its airspace to India on April 24 for at least a month.
New Delhi, in a similar move, banned Pakistani flights from Indian airspace on April 30. The ban was due to expire today, local time.
However, the two sides announced that the flight ban will remain in place for another month (until June 24).
The closure of Pakistani airspace has affected about 800 Indian flights every week.
Kashmir, which is predominantly Muslim, has been a point of contention between the two nuclear-armed countries since India and Pakistan gained independence in 1947, and both claim ownership of it.
Pakistan’s decision to close its airspace to its neighbor will add two hours to Indian flights to Central Asia, Europe, and North America, and the increased flight time will subsequently increase costs.
When Islamabad closed its airspace to India in 2019 following New Delhi’s air strikes in response to an attack in Kashmir, the country’s domestic airlines suffered financial losses of around 5.5 billion rupees ($64.3 million) over about five months, according to official government data.