After the Pehelgam terror attacks, which happened a week ago, and the swift closure of the Pakistani airspace for India registered aircraft, there has been a new development from the Indian side.
India restricts the use of its airspace for Pakistani aircraft.
In a reciprocal move, the Indian Government, on April 30, 2025, published a Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) that they will also shut the use of Indian airspace for both civil and military Pakistani aircraft. The NOTAM came into existence on the midnight of April 30 – May 1, 2025, and will last till May 23, 2025, for now.
This NOTAM will hardly affect PIA, though. They have already started routing their flights to Kuala Lumpur, skirting the Indian airspace. Here are the routings of the Islamabad – Kuala Lumpur and Lahore – Kuala Lumpur flights. As you can see, the flights take up to 3 hours more to operate one-way now.
Route taken by Islamabad – Kuala Lumpur (PK894) on April 30, 2025.(Image from FlightRadar24)
Route taken by Lahore – Kuala Lumpur (PK898) on April 27, 2025.(Image from FlightRadar24)
Bottomline
India, in a retort to Pakistan, has shut its airspace for use of Pakistani aircraft with immediate effect. This will cause Pakistan International Airways to use a much longer detour to fly to and from Kuala Lumpur in the coming days.
What do you make of the move from India to restrict Pakistani aircraft from our airspace?
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The real impact on Pakistan is not from PIA standpoint. Pakistan gets $500 per flight that uses its airspace and considering the number of flights Indian airlines operate through Pakistan airspace, it’s a good amount of revenue loss.