NEW DELHI: Pakistan’s closure of its airspace to Indian flights has forced these flights to take a longer route to reach their destinations in North America, the UK, Europe and the Middle East.Passengers will be forced to spend a longer time inside their flights and reach their destinations late. Fare hikes are likely but until Friday night no airline was ready to comment on this matter.Meanwhile, Indigo has cancelled its routes to Almaty in Kazakhstan and Tashkent in Uzbekistan until May 7.A Civil Aviation Ministry source told this newspaper, “Flights will now have to take the route over the Arabian Sea. There is no other option. It will definitely take much longer for passengers and cost overheads for airlines before the destinations are reached.”The longish route to be taken and the fuel cost involved have not found much favourwith the airlines, the source said. “Representatives of airlines have been busy lobbying with the Civil Aviation ministry seeking incentives to operate international flights along the extended route,” he said.The same was done by the airlines after the Pulwama attacks in 2019 when Pakistan closed its airspace, he added. Air India, Indigo, Air India Express, Spice jet and Akasa Air are among the airlines set to be impacted by the move.
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