Air tickets to Gulf countries from North India to become costly after Pakistan shut its airspace for Indian flights. Details here

Pakistan's decision to shut its airspace for Indian carriers will affect major airlines like IndiGo and Air India, which are already conducting internal meetings to devise alternative routes for their international flights.

This decision means longer flight hours and costlier tickets, like in 2019  when Indian airlines collectively lost approximately ₹700 crore due to operational complications and increased fuel expenses.

Ticket charges

It is anticipated that there will be a 30% increase in airfares for flights to Gulf countries, an extremely sought-after sector in India. There will also be around a 40% increase in ticket prices for Europe and North America as most flights connecting the continents have Gulf countries as transit points.

Over 550 flights of various Indian and foreign airlines originating from India overfly Pakistan daily, Hindustan Times quoted a Delhi airport official. Of these, almost 120 flights of Indian carriers, from North India, will have to take an alternative route, over Mumbai before heading to the Arabian Sea. From there, it will enter Muscat airspace to continue on its regular route.

Destinations affected

Air India will have to pay the highest price for the alternative route since it is the primary operator of long-haul international flights to Western countries, including those in Europe and North America. Services to Gulf countries, the UK, the US and Canada will be affected.

In 2019, Air India’s Delhi-Chicago flights required European refuelling stops due to extra flying hours.

As for other carriers, IndiGo operates most flights to the Middle East, including UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Turkey. IndiGo also operates flights to Central Asian countries, including Baku, Tbilisi and Almaty. All these flights will now experience approximately 90 minutes of delay. In 2019, IndiGo’s Delhi-Istanbul service operated by narrow-body aircraft needed refuelling in Doha (DOH).

Akasa Air and SpiceJet with flights to West Asian destinations. 

Middle East