After Pak Opens Airspace, India Issues NOTAM Initiating Normal Air Traffic Operation: Sources

Pakistan opened its airspace for all civilian traffic on Tuesday morning, effectively removing the ban on Indian flights that were not allowed to use majority of its airspace since the Balakot air strikes in February.

Image used for representational purpose/ (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP)

New Delhi: After Pakistan issued notice to airmen (NOTAM) to lift airspace restrictions for all civilian traffic, India has also issued revised NOTAM thereafter, agencies reported. Citing relevant government sources, news agency ANI reported that relevant authorities informed India immediately issued revised NOTAM as Pakistan effectively removed the ban on Indian flights that were not allowed to use majority of its airspace since the Balakot air strikes in February. With this, normal air traffic operations have resumed through all Flight Information Regions b/w India and Pakistan, it said. Pakistan opened its airspace for all civilian traffic on Tuesday morning, effectively removing the ban on Indian flights that were not allowed to use majority of its airspace since the Balakot air strikes in February. The move is expected to give a major relief to Air India, which suffered a huge financial loss of around Rs 491 crore as it had to re-route its various international flights due to the closure of the Pakistan airspace. "Pakistan has permitted all airlines to fly through its airspace from around 12.41 am today. Indian airline operators will start using normal routes through Pakistan airspace soon," news agency PTI quoted its sources. Pakistan had fully closed its airspace on February 26 after the Indian Air Force (IAF) struck a Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorist training camp in Balakot in retaliation to the Pulwama attack on February 14. Since then, the neighbouring country had only opened two routes, both of them passing through the southern region, of the total 11. On its part, the IAF had announced on May 31 that all temporary restrictions imposed on the Indian airspace post the Balakot strike had been removed. However, it did not benefit most of the commercial airliners and they were waiting for Pakistan to fully open its airspace. In India, the biggest pain was suffered by Air India that conducts various international flights from Delhi to Europe and the US. (with inputs of ANI)