Foreign Airlines Voluntarily Boycotting Pakistani Airspace

Amid escalating tensions between India and Pakistan, several major Western airline companies have voluntarily stopped using Pakistani airspace. While there are no official bans on their aircraft, these companies have opted to alter their flight paths as a precautionary measure.

Over the past two days, prominent European carriers including Lufthansa, British Airways, Swiss International Air Lines, Air France, ITA Airways of Italy, and LOT Polish Airlines have suspended operations over Pakistani airspace. As a result of these detours, flight durations between Europe and India have increased by an average of one hour.

Analysts believe this development is a significant economic setback for Pakistan. The Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority collects overflight fees from airlines that use its airspace. With multiple carriers rerouting their flights, Pakistan is poised to lose millions of dollars in monthly revenue. A similar situation occurred in 2019, when Pakistan closed its airspace for nearly five months following the Balakot airstrikes, resulting in losses of approximately 100 million USD.

Following the recent terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir—which claimed the lives of 26 tourists—India and Pakistan imposed mutual restrictions on each other’s airspace. Indian aircraft are barred from entering Pakistani airspace, and Pakistani aircraft face reciprocal restrictions from India. With Western airlines now also avoiding Pakistan’s skies, the financial blow to the country is expected to deepen further.

There is growing concern that rising travel times and increased fuel consumption may eventually lead airlines to pass on the added costs to passengers in the form of higher ticket prices.