India Pakistan tensions: Pakistan’s move to close airspace for India backfires, Islamabad losing huge amount of money daily due to…

Soon after the deadly attack on Pahalgam which claimed 26 lives, Pakistan in a shameless move closed all its airspace for Indian flights thinking that would be have a great impact on India. However, it backfired on it. Technically, due to taking longer routes, India’s international flights have to spend more fuel, which is increasing their expenses. however, it also had made a huge hole on Pakistan’s pocket.

Actually, amid fear of war with India, many international airlines have changed their route to come to India. They fear that if a situation of war suddenly arises, they will be stuck in Pakistan’s airspace. Air France in a statement said, “Due to the recent tension between India and Pakistan, the airline has decided to suspend flights from Pakistan’s airspace until further notice.”

Lufthansa also changed route

German airline Lufthansa also said that its flights are “avoiding Pakistan’s airspace until further notice.” Flight tracking data also showed that other international airlines such as British Airways, Swiss International Airlines and Emirates are also taking alternate and longer flights avoiding Pakistan’s airspace, increasing fuel consumption and flight time. Air France has also issued a similar order for its flights.

Pakistan suffering losses worth crores

Due to the reckless boycott of Pakistan’s airspace by international flights, its economy will suffer another major blow. This is because every flight that uses the airspace of another country has to pay overflight charges to that country. Pakistan also charges these international flights. But now that these airlines have distanced themselves from Pakistan’s airspace, it will not get these charges. Pakistan charges this fee based on the distance covered by a plane in its space and the weight of the plane. According to reports, Pakistan charges $580 from a Boeing 737. On the other hand, more money is charged from bigger aircraft.

There is no exact figure available to show how much loss Pakistan is facing due to this, but when Pakistan closed its airspace after the Balakot airstrike in 2019, it was facing a loss of $2.32 lakh (Rs 1.95 crore) every day. According to a report by HT, in July 2019, Pakistan had to face a loss of $100 million (Rs 842 crore) due to the closed airspace.

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