Air india is exploring alternative routes to North America due to restrictions imposed by pakistan in the wake of the pahalgam attack. It is considering the possibility of operating a flight to another city in the country and then going to North American states. This will reduce the cost of avoiding Pakistani airspace, sources say. air india currently operates 71 flights to North America. Of these, 54 services depart from Delhi. The company has said that it is looking at alternatives. It said that it is looking to reduce take-offs in other countries and introduce more non-stop flights to the US. All flights departing from delhi and northern cities are flying over the Arabian Ocean. This is increasing time and costs. There are reports that if flights from New delhi take mumbai or ahmedabad as stopovers, there will be no need to stop in european cities. That is why air india is considering this option.
 With the closure of Pakistan's airspace, air india will have to face a loss of Rs 5200 crore. Other indian airlines will have to spend an additional Rs 306 crore every month. Coincidentally, pakistan has closed its airspace for indian airlines. However, international airlines are said to have voluntarily decided to look for other flight routes. This will mean that pakistan will lose millions of dollars that it gets from them for using its airspace. When pakistan closed its airspace in 2019, it lost $ 100 million.  In the last two days, Lufthansa, british Airways, Swiss, air France, ITA, and LOT have decided to take alternative routes. This will add an hour to the journey. Passengers are bearing the fuel costs. pakistan is also facing problems with india closing its airspace. The flight to Kuala Lumpur will take 8.30 hours instead of 5.30. bangladesh and sri lanka will also have to take more routes.
Experts say that flights departing from Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore, mumbai, and ahmedabad are not facing any problems. Because the flights departing from here do not fly over pakistan and go through the arabian sea and the Bay of Bengal, so the Pakistani airspace ban will not have any impact on southern cities. So air india is also preparing to start flights to various cities including America from mumbai, ahmedabad, and southern cities.
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Sowmiya Sriram

04/05/2025 12:44 PM