Pakistan extends airspace ban along its eastern border with India till June 28

Press Trust of India  |  Lahore 

on Thursday extended its ban along its eastern border with for the third time till June 28, according to a notice issued by the country's Civil Authority (CAA).

Since then, it has only opened two routes, both of them pass through southern Pakistan, of the total 11. Pakistan's civil authority is expected to review the situation on June 15.

The IAF announced on May 31 that all temporary restrictions imposed on Indian post the Balakot airstrike have been removed.

The CAA notice issued to airmen (NOTAM) on Thursday says: "Pakistani airspace will be closed until June 28 along its eastern border with The Panjgoor airspace will remain open for overflying transit flights from the western side as had already been using that airspace."

A government told that since there has been no communication between the two countries regarding opening of their airspace for each other the "status quo" will prevail.

"See if some development takes place at the government's level in this respect before June 28," he said.

On Wednesday Pakistan gave a special permission to Narendra Modi's VVIP flight to use its airspace for his trip to attend the summit in Bishkek, the capital of

However Modi's flight avoided flying over Pakistan. Earlier, Pakistan had allowed India's (former) to fly directly though Pakistani airspace to participate in the meeting of SCO foreign ministers in Bishkek on May 21.

Pakistan earlier had indicated that it may lift the airspace ban along its eastern border with India imposed on February 27 to reciprocate India's decision to remove all restrictions on all air routes in the Indian airspace.

As a result of the ban, foreign carriers using Indian airspace have been forced to take costly detours because they cannot fly over Pakistan.

The closure mainly affects flights from to The flights from and the US flying in and out of New have been the worst hit.

Since Pakistan's airspace closure, the airfare on many routes have gone up significantly, including Delhi-Kabul, Delhi-Moscow, Delhi-and Delhi-

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Thu, June 13 2019. 19:50 IST