Airlines of many countries have suffered losses as a result of the closure of Pakistan’s air space, a consequence of the military tension that was created by India on night 25/26 February 2019, as two of its fighter jets had violatedthe Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir and bombed a bare ground, in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJ&K), falsely claiming it to be a terrorist training camp. Amid the continuing tension, Pakistani fighter jets had shot down two Indian jet fighters on 27 February 2019 and an Indian pilot was also captured by the Pakistan Army, who was released just after two days as a peace making gesture.
While releasing the Indian pilot,Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Mr. Imran Khan had also offered peace talks to the Indian Prime Minister, Mr. Modi. To reduce tensions and the chances of the outbreak of the war, many foreign heads of the state/government had also offered their mediation, which was refused by India. However, with the efforts of the major powers such as the US and China, although the chances of the war were averted, but India continued to maintain the tension across the LoC and continued to warn Pakistan of carrying out surgical strikes across the LoC.
Since India has not paid any heed to Pakistan’s repeated offers of holding bilateral dialogue to seek peace by resolving the disputes,and it still continues to implicitly threaten Pakistan for any surprise air strike and it is keeping the LoC hot by engaging in heavy artillery firing, Pakistan has to constantly exercise air alert by keeping its air space closed for the transit international flights to or from New Delhi. Although Pakistan has opened its airspace for domestic flights and international flights other than mentioned earlier.
Therefore, because of the above discussed situation created by India, many international airlines have either discontinued their flights passing over Pakistan, or they have diverted the flights avoiding Pakistani territory. As a consequence,the affected international airlines are suffering losses, due to discontinuation of flights or because of the diversion in the routes their fares have been increased as the flight timings have increased..
Quoting the Indian media reports, the Arab News dated 27 March 2019 have stated that the Indian airline alone has suffered over $8.72 million in losses until 20 March 2019, because its flights travelling west can no longer fly through Pakistani airspace and need to swing south across Gujarat and then cut across the Arabian sea to reach their destinations in Europe and North America
As per the Hindu newspaper, India dated 2 April 2019, Airlines from Central and West Asia now take a much longer route, than before. For example, now Delhi-Astana flight takes eight hours, whereas previously the flight duration was four hours and thirty minutes.Delhi to Moscow flight now takes eight plus hours, instead of six hours and twenty five minutes. Delhi to Kabul flights take five plus hours instead of the previous two hours and thirty minutes. Delhi-Tehran flights now take three hours and forty minutes instead of the previous two hours and thirty minutes.Thousands of passengers are facing longer flights and are paying higher airfares.
Quoting the Indian media reports, the Arab News dated 27 March 2019 have stated that the Indian airline alone has suffered over $8.72 million in losses until 20 March 2019, because its flights travelling west can no longer fly through Pakistani airspace and need to swing south across Gujarat and then cut across the Arabian sea to reach their destinations in Europe and North America.
For the above mentioned Airlines losses and difficulties being faced by the passengers,the affected Airlines should hold India as responsible, because it is not lowering the tensions and Pakistan has to exercise air alert. Although Indian PM, Modi is exploiting this tension to win the general elections, Pakistan can never be sure about India’s intentions.
As is being published in the Indian media on a daily basis, while the united opposition led by the Indian National Congress is emphasizing on its manifesto in the election campaign, Modi is making speeches on Pakistan bashing. In this context, despite the fact that the international media has declared Indian claims as false, Narendra Modi is still claiming in his election speeches that in the Balakot strike Indian pilots destroyed a terrorist camp, killing hundreds of terrorists and he is declaring the Indian pilot Abhiman as a hero for shootingdown a Pakistani F-16, although the US officials have negated this Indian claim.
In view of the above discussed India’s offensive posture, Pakistan is being compelled to remain vigilant of any air strikes, which could be attempted by India, and that is why it has closed its airspace for the foreign flights from or to Delhi, supposed to be passing over its territory. Hence, India is to be held responsible for the losses occurring to the affected international airlines and even to its own airline and the difficulties being faced by the passengers of the flights.
The writer is an ex-Army Colonel, a former Research Fellow of Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI), Islamabad and Senior Research Fellow, Strategic Vision Institute, Islamabad