Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authority has quietly extended its Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) barring all Indian-registered commercial, military and leased aircraft from entering Pakistani airspace until 23 April 2026. The previous NOTAM, issued on 23 February, had been due to lapse on 23 March, but was updated in the early hours of 26 March according to flight-tracking notices reviewed by airlines. The extension comes amid continuing diplomatic tensions that followed India’s 2025 air-strikes under “Operation Sindoor” and has now entered its twelfth month. For Indian carriers the decision is immediately operational. Air India and IndiGo have had to retain costly detours over the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman before turning north-west towards Europe and North America. According to airline schedules, the diversions add between 45 minutes (Delhi-Dubai) and three hours (Delhi-London, Mumbai-Toronto). Industry analysts at CAPA India estimate that the incremental fuel, crew and over-flight charges are costing Indian airlines about US $2 million a day, or nearly 2 per cent of their total operating expenditure.
![Pakistan extends airspace ban on Indian carriers, disrupting West-bound flight corridors]()
Travellers recalibrating their routes because of these detours often discover they suddenly need additional transit permits or fresh visas for unplanned stopovers; VisaHQ’s India portal (https://www.visahq.com/india/) streamlines that scramble by letting passengers verify entry rules, lodge digital applications and arrange courier pickup of documents from anywhere in the country, ensuring paperwork keeps pace with constantly shifting flight paths.
Air India alone projects a US $600 million annual hit if the closure lasts a full year. Cargo carriers are equally affected. FedEx and DHL, which use Indian airports as South-Asian hubs, now route freighters through Central Asian air corridors, reducing belly-hold capacity for exporters in Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai. Engineering exporters report that door-to-door delivery times to Germany have stretched from four to six days, complicating just-in-time supply chains for automotive parts. Business travellers are feeling the pinch too. The preferred one-stop itineraries to the US East Coast via Doha and Dubai have become harder to find as Gulf carriers cap seat allocations on India-bound flights to keep within bilateral quotas. Travel managers at several IT-services majors told Business Standard that average economy fares to New York for travel in April have already crossed ₹130,000—about 60 per cent higher than pre-ban levels. Companies are reviving long-dormant travel-policy clauses that encourage virtual meetings or combine multiple assignments into a single long trip. What next? Delhi has so far maintained reciprocal over-flight restrictions on Pakistani aircraft—a largely symbolic move because PIA no longer flies to India—but has stopped short of escalating. Airline executives say they have contingency plans if the ban stretches into the high-demand summer schedule: Air India is negotiating technical stops in Vienna and Baku for ultra-long-haul flights, while IndiGo is examining wide-body wet leases to cope with reduced payloads. For now, corporates should build extra travel time into itineraries, monitor insurance clauses for “war-risk” surcharges, and prepare for further fare volatility if West-Asia geopolitical risks intensify.
Travellers recalibrating their routes because of these detours often discover they suddenly need additional transit permits or fresh visas for unplanned stopovers; VisaHQ’s India portal (https://www.visahq.com/india/) streamlines that scramble by letting passengers verify entry rules, lodge digital applications and arrange courier pickup of documents from anywhere in the country, ensuring paperwork keeps pace with constantly shifting flight paths.
Air India alone projects a US $600 million annual hit if the closure lasts a full year. Cargo carriers are equally affected. FedEx and DHL, which use Indian airports as South-Asian hubs, now route freighters through Central Asian air corridors, reducing belly-hold capacity for exporters in Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai. Engineering exporters report that door-to-door delivery times to Germany have stretched from four to six days, complicating just-in-time supply chains for automotive parts. Business travellers are feeling the pinch too. The preferred one-stop itineraries to the US East Coast via Doha and Dubai have become harder to find as Gulf carriers cap seat allocations on India-bound flights to keep within bilateral quotas. Travel managers at several IT-services majors told Business Standard that average economy fares to New York for travel in April have already crossed ₹130,000—about 60 per cent higher than pre-ban levels. Companies are reviving long-dormant travel-policy clauses that encourage virtual meetings or combine multiple assignments into a single long trip. What next? Delhi has so far maintained reciprocal over-flight restrictions on Pakistani aircraft—a largely symbolic move because PIA no longer flies to India—but has stopped short of escalating. Airline executives say they have contingency plans if the ban stretches into the high-demand summer schedule: Air India is negotiating technical stops in Vienna and Baku for ultra-long-haul flights, while IndiGo is examining wide-body wet leases to cope with reduced payloads. For now, corporates should build extra travel time into itineraries, monitor insurance clauses for “war-risk” surcharges, and prepare for further fare volatility if West-Asia geopolitical risks intensify.
