Pakistan refuses GoFirst’s Srinagar-Sharjah direct flight to use its airspace – Times of India

New Delhi: Pakistan has started denying overflight clearance for international flights between Jammu and Kashmir and the Gulf. Union Home Minister Amit Shah had started a four-day-a-week direct flight between Srinagar and Sharjah on October 23 this year. By the end of October, Pakistan had allowed this flight to fly over its airspace. But he withdrew the permission from Tuesday.
The November 2 flight took a very long way over Gujarat. It took about 3 hours 40 minutes to fly over Pakistan while the longer route took about 40-50 minutes more to stay away from the neighboring country’s airspace. GoFirst did not comment on the issue.

“Pakistan had given overflying clearance to this Srinagar-Sharjah-Srinagar flight and then suddenly started denying access to its airspace for this flight. India has written a letter to Pakistan on this issue but no response has come so far. If they don’t respond, India can raise it in international forums,” said a senior official.

Shah launched the first direct battle for the United Arab Emirates in Jammu and Kashmir after 11 years. In February 2009, AI Express started the Srinagar-Dubai flight which was discontinued due to poor demand.
Former J&K CM Omar Abdullah tweeted: “Very unfortunate. Pakistan did the same with an Air India Express flight from Srinagar to Dubai in 2009–2010. I expected that GoFirst being allowed to fly over Pakistan’s airspace was a sign of a thaw in relations, but alas, this should not happen.

Another former CM Mehbooba Mufti tweeted: “It is shocking that the Indian government did not even bother to seek permission from Pakistan to use its airspace for international flights from Srinagar. Only PR extravaganza without any groundwork.”
However, government sources denied this, saying that permission was sought and given by Pakistan before the flight started. Flight tracking websites show flights over Pakistan on 23 October (opening), 24, 26, 28 and 30. The first flight of this month, November 2, had a long way to go because of Pakistan’s denial of permission to overfly. If this continues, the airline may find it more commercially viable to add a stop in Delhi where passengers fly between Delhi on a regular flight between Srinagar and Sharjah. Longer nonstop routes that avoid Pakistan’s airspace mean more operating expenses on things like fuel burning and crew.
After IAF’s Balakot attack, Pakistan closed its airspace for overflight for 138 days from February 27, 2019 to July 16, 2019. Even at that time, India had taken up the issue with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the aviation arm of the United Nations. Currently, Afghanistan’s airspace is closed to non-military aircraft from 16 August 2021.