As Pakistan closed its airspace for Indian airlines and barred them from overflying, airlines have scrambled to adjust schedules and start cancellations. A look at the airline and airport websites shows that IndiGo has already cancelled flights to Almaty and Tashkent today. It operates daily from Delhi and the route will be too circuitous to operate by avoiding the Pakistani airspace. There will be a direct impact on flights to Central Asia, where operations may have to be suspended.
The current NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) released by Pakistani authorities shows that the airspace is closed till 0530 hours on May 24, 2025, Indian Standard Time.
These NOTAMs, which are dictated by geopolitical tensions, are always up for changes depending on the situation on the ground. While there have not been any direct flights between the two countries for a very long time, Indian carriers flying to the Middle East, North America and Europe, especially from Northern India, regularly use the Pakistani airspace for transit.
The maximum impact of this would be felt by Delhi airport, already reeling under the pressure of runway closure for work and subsequent delays, along with Air India. Air India has 134 weekly departures to Europe and North America (USA & Canada) from Delhi, its primary hub, and these will feel the pinch of the airspace closure.
The impact will be on the block times, which will now be more than before as planes fly longer. The last time there was a similar impact was in 2021 when Taliban took over Afghanistan and airlines started avoiding the Afghan airspace completely for a few months. Before that, Pakistani airspace was closed for all India-bound planes, including foreign carriers, from February 27, 2019, to July 16, 2019, in the aftermath of the Balakot strikes by the Indian Air Force, in retaliation for the Pulwama attack.
Indian carriers operate 144 weekly departures from Delhi to points in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain, all of which overfly Pakistani airspace regularly. The closure could have an impact on approximately 300 flights a week at Delhi airport, which handles a little over 1,000 flights a week.
For the airport, this means changes in arrival and departure times, and since Delhi is the largest hub in India, it also impacts transfer passengers and transfer times. This will deal a blow to Air India’s “Via India” campaign where it changed timings of its flights to Australia and added a bank of flights to Europe to offer seamless and fastest connections between points in the European Union and Australia.