NEW DELHI: Top Indian airlines Air India and IndiGo are bracing for higher fuel costs and longer journey times as they reroute international flights, after Pakistan shut its airspace to them amid escalating tensions over a deadly attack in India-held Kashmir.
New Delhi has accused Pakistani elements of being involved in the Pahalgam attack, but Pakistan has denied any involvement.
The nuclear-armed arch rivals have unleashed a raft of measures against each other in response, with India keeping a critical river water-sharing treaty in abeyance and Pakistan closing its airspace to Indian airlines.
Pakistan has said the ban will be in place until May 23. International airlines, however, are not affected by the ban.
The impact of the airspace closure was visible starting late on Thursday, as Air India and IndiGo began to reroute flights to New York, Azerbaijan and Dubai — all of which typically use Pakistan airpsace, according to data from tracking website Flightradar24.
The worst impacted airport will be New Delhi, one of the world’s busiest, from where flights cross Pakistani airspace to fly to destinations in the West and the Middle East.
Data from Cirium Ascend showed IndiGo, Air India and its budget unit Air India Express have roughly 1,200 flights combined from New Delhi scheduled for Europe, the Middle East and North America in April.
Air India’s flights to the Middle East from New Delhi will now be forced to fly roughly an hour extra, which means higher fuel costs and less cargo to accommodate the extra fuel, said an Indian aviation industry executive, who declined to be identified.
IndiGo said on Friday “a few “further escalatory moves” of its flights will be impacted, while Air India said on X that some “flights to or from North America, UK, Europe, and Middle East will take an alternative extended route.”
“Air India is currently the most affected with the largest long- and ultra-long haul network out of Delhi,” said Ajay Awtaney, founder of aviation-focused website LiveFromALounge.
One Indian airline pilot told Reuters the move will disrupt schedules, but also force airlines to redo their calculations of flying hours in relation to regulations, and adjust their crew and pilot rosters accordingly.
Another executive at an Indian airline said the carrier was scrambling to assess the impact with some employees working late into the night on Thursday.
Both spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to brief media.
IndiGo flight 6E1803 from New Delhi to Baku on Thursday took 5 hours and 43 minutes via a longer route that involved going southwest to India’s Gujarat state and then over the Arabian Sea, before swinging back north over Iran to Azerbaijan, FlightAware data showed. The same flight, through Pakistan airspace, took five hours and five minutes on Wednesday.
Published in Dawn, April 26th, 2025