One of the air routes between Pakistan and India has been opened for flights, Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said on Thursday. CAA Spokesperson Nawaz Sapra said the aerial route at Taum had been opened by Pakistan. “Pakistan opened a route for west-bound flights around 5pm on Thursday. The impact of this announcement is yet to be assessed,” said a senior official of the Ministry of Civil Aviation. The route passes from near Mumbai and enters southern Pakistan. This is one of the 11 air routes between India and Pakistan. Since the ban by Pakistan on the use of its airspace, several flights within Asia, between Asia and West Asia or Europe or the US were forced to take a longer route, entailing an increase in flight duration and sometimes a halt for refueling. This led to an increase in operational costs, forcing many airlines to cancel flights or hike fares.