In April 2025, right after the India-Pakistan skirmishes, Pakistan decided to close their airspace to Indian carriers, in a repeat of its 2019 stance. This meant that Indian airlines or India-registered aircraft will no longer be able to use Pakistani airspace to conduct flights in and out of Europe and the Middle East.
Pakistan Airspace Closure extends through October 2025
The closure has led to a change in plans for airlines around India. Air India is having to fly their planes from Europe and North America to Delhi with a 2-hour-long diversion. And the West Coast of the US flights have a stop in Kolkata for fuel.
IndiGo has had to shift its widebody launch from Delhi to Mumbai, and operates the Amsterdam and Manchester flights from there. Furthermore, the upcoming flight to Copenhagen will also depart from Mumbai. However, they at least secured an extension on their Turkish Airlines widebody wet leases.
The NOTAM, as published on the Pakistani Civil Aviation Authority website, is provided below.
The date or validity of this airspace closure is currently unknown. That is, we know this edition is valid through October 23, but how long it remains in effect is unknown. It was earlier reported that Pakistan lost a potential revenue of 15 million USD in the months after the shutdown through June 2025.
Bottomline
Pakistani Airspace has been shut to Indian-owned airlines and Indian-registered aircraft since April 2025. This is the 5th month of the closure. This has affected Air India’s operations to the west of India and those of IndiGo and Air India to the Middle East (amongst other airlines such as SpiceJet). The last time, it took 5 months for the airspace to be reopened. This time, we still don’t know.
What do you make of this closure of Pakistani Airspace for Indian carriers?
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