By Express News Service
NEW DELHI/SRINAGAR : Pakistan refused to allow a recently launched Srinagar-Sharjah flight to use its airspace, a move which would not only lead to increase in flying time by around 40 minutes but also costlier fares. Go First had started direct flights between Srinagar and Sharjah from October 23 onwards.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah had inaugurated the direct flight between Srinagar and Sharjah on October 23 during his three day visit to Jammu and Kashmir. The move marked the revival of the direct airlink between the Valley and the UAE after 11 years.
Sources said Pakistan refused its airspace to be accessed by Go First’s Srinagar-Sharjah flight. They added that the issue was reported to the ministries including civil aviation, external affairs, and home affairs.From now on, the flight from Srinagar to Sharjah will have to fly via Udaipur, Ahmedabad and Oman.
News agency PTI reported that there was no reaction from Go First despite a request for a statement.Calling the move “very unfortunate”, National Conference leader and former J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah recounted how this was not the first time that Islamabad did such an act. “Pakistan did the same this with the Air India Express flight from Srinagar to Dubai in 2009-2010. I had hoped that GoFirst airways being permitted to overfly Pak airspace was indicative of a thaw in relations but alas that wasn’t to be,” he tweeted.
On the other hand, PDP president Mehbooba Mufi slammed the government saying that the flagging off of the flight was only a ‘PR extravaganza without any groundwork’. “Puzzling that GOI didn’t even bother securing permission from Pakistan to use its airspace for international flights from Srinagar. Only PR extravaganza without any groundwork.”
Earlier, the Pakistan government had allowed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s special VVIP flight to use its airspace. For the recent visit to Italy for the G20 summit, Modi’s flight flew over the Pakistani airspace and came back using the same route. In September, when PM Modi flew to Washington, his flight was allowed to use Pakistan’s airspace.
