'Never in history such stupidity': Pakistan loses millions as it closes airspace to Indian flights - 'Never in history such stupidity': Pakistan loses millions as it closes airspace to Indian flights BusinessToday (2025)

Pakistan's decision to close its airspace to Indian carriers following the Pahalgam terror attack is likely to hurt its own aviation revenues significantly, with overflight fees from one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing aviation markets now disappearing.

A Pakistani user posted a video showing an Indian flight taking a longer route to avoid Pakistani airspace. She commented, "Aur lo Panga."

Responding to the post, X user Naren Menon highlighted the economic cost of Pakistan's move. He wrote, "Pakistan loses 'overflight fees' from the 3rd largest (and fastest growing) aviation market in the world. That's easily hundreds of millions of USD every year. Never in the history of mankind has there been so much collective stupidity in a land."

Menon was pointing to the major revenue loss Pakistan faces by blocking Indian flights, given the scale and growth of India's aviation sector.

When another user disagreed saying Pakistan was still making money from foreign airlines because only Indian airlines are restricted, Naren said the majority of flights westward from India are by Indian carriers.

While Indian airlines such as Air India and IndiGo are bracing for higher fuel costs and longer journey times as they reroute flights to North America, Europe, and the Middle East, Islamabad faces the immediate fallout of losing critical overflight revenues.

In July 2019, Hindustan Times had reported that a similar airspace closure following the Pulwama attack had cost Pakistan nearly $100 million. Back then, the closure affected around 400 flights daily and resulted in mounting losses for Pakistan's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and its national carrier, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA).

An extensive study of operations between February and late June 2019 showed that nearly 400 flights a day were impacted. The closure forced airlines to bypass Pakistani airspace, leading to higher fuel and maintenance costs, as well as longer crew duty hours.

The loss to Pakistan was substantial. Charges for a Boeing 737 transiting Pakistani airspace were about $580, and higher for larger aircraft. Using this as a base, officials estimated that daily losses from overflight charges alone were about $232,000. Including terminal navigation, landing, and parking charges, the daily loss climbed to around $300,000.

Additionally, Pakistan International Airlines faced losses of nearly $460,000 a day due to the suspension of international routes and increased costs for longer domestic flight paths. The combined daily losses for the CAA and PIA added up to around $760,000, culminating in an overall hit of almost $100 million during the previous closure period.

As political tensions spike again after the terror attack in Pahalgam, Islamabad's move to shut its skies to Indian airlines risks repeating the costly consequences it faced five years ago.

Published on: Apr 27, 2025 8:32 AM IST

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