Daily Times

Pakistani actress Veena Malik said on Thursday that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a “stupid person”. Commenting on Indian professor Ashok Swain’s post on Twitter about “Modi’s Balakot stupidity is killing Air India,” Veena Malik said, “Told you guys, he’s stupid.”

The government-owned airline Air India has suffered massive losses due to the closure of Pakistan’s airspace, Indian media reported. According to a report, Air India has been affected more than any other airline due to the closure of Pakistan airspace, with a loss of more than Indian Rs 60 crore as of Saturday.

Pakistan shut its airspace on February 27, the day it shot down two Indian aircraft for violating the airspace. Flights of several airlines around the world have been either re-routed or cancelled. Out of all the airlines, Air India is one of the worst-hit airlines, the report said.

Air India flies 66 weekly services to Europe and 33 to the United States. Since the routes mostly fly through Pakistani airspace, majority of these flights had to be either cancelled or diverted. “Air India flights travelling west can no longer fly over Pakistan’s airspace and need to swing south across Gujarat and then cut across the Arabian sea to reach their destinations in Europe and North America.”

The most problematic flights for Air India, the report say, are flights between India and the US east coast – Washington, New York, Newark and Chicago. This has resulted in Air India, which was already surviving on government bailouts, to incur heavy revenue losses, a spokesperson said. Other airlines such as private carriers Spice Jet and Jet Airways have also been affected as they to cancel their flight between Delhi and Kabul.

Published in Daily Times, March 22^nd 2019.