NEW DELHI: IndiGo will suspend its Delhi-Tashkent & Delhi-Almaty flights at least till May 7, 2025, due to the closure of Pakistan airspace for India carriers which requires them to take longer routes between north India and the west. Air India’s flights to the west (Europe/UK/North America) may now need to take a fuelling halt on a case to case basis depending on wind conditions and aircraft load, said officials.
“Due to the closure of Pakistan’s airspace, (about) 50 international routes operated by IndiGo will require longer sectors and hence may be subject to some slight schedule adjustments. With the same restrictions and limited rerouting options, unfortunately Almaty and Tashkent are outside the operational range of IndiGo’s current fleet. Hence flights to Almaty stand cancelled from April 27 until at least May 7 and to Tashkent from April 28 until May 7, 2025,” IndiGo said in a statement.
The CIS routes of IndiGo are expected to take 80-90 minutes more via the longer route. Coupled with the flying time, some sectors are now out of range for its current fleet of Airbus A320 family planes.
Air India officials say the impact on their flights has been “minimal” so far as they have gone through the same drill in 2019. Five long haul flights of Air India were enroute India when Pakistan airspace was shut on 6 pm (IST) Thursday. They had to them take a fuelling halt to fly to Delhi via the longer route.
“Our North America nonstops may remain so or take a fuelling halt enroute depending on the conditions each day, each flight. Which means on a given day how are the wind flows and aircraft loads like, tha call will be taken,” said an AI official.
Senior pilots say they used to avoid headwinds while taking the Delhi -north Pakistan -Hindukush route to the west — the route being taken ever since Afghan airspace was closed for civilian flights since Aug 2021 Taliban taking over that country. Closure of Pakistan airspace means flights between north India (which means primarily Delhi, the biggest hun of the region) and the west will go close to Mumbai and Ahmedabad; then turn right over the Arabian Sea to head to Muscat and then fly to their destination.“This time of the years ees strong headwinds here which we till now avoiding withthe Hindukush route,” say pilots.
Longer routes mean airfares for new bookings could rise by 30-40%.
Foreign airlines are watching the India-Pakistan situation closely. While Pakistan has not barred foreign carriers, countries do their own risk assessment for overflying any region and if they deem the geopolitical situation on India-Pakistan border risky, some of them may suspend flights. When Pakistan closed its airspace in 2019, some North American airlines had suspended Delhi flights.
“Qatar Airways confirms that all flights to and from India are operating as scheduled and remain unaffected by the current airspace closure. The airline is closely monitoring the situation and will continue to prioritise the safety and comfort of its passengers and crew. Passengers are advised to check the latest flight information,” Qatar Airways said in a statement.
KLM said, “At this moment, we do not have any adjustments for our flights to India.”