India's largest airline, IndiGo, will need to take alternative extended routes for at least 50 international destinations and suspend its operations in part of Central Asia due to Pakistan's closure of its airspace to Indian carriers.
"Due to the closure of Pakistan's airspace, circa 50 international routes will require longer sectors and, hence, may be subject to some slight schedule adjustments," the airline said in a statement.
"With limited rerouting options, unfortunately Almaty and Tashkent are outside the operational range of IndiGo's current fleet. Hence flights to Almaty stand cancelled from April 27 until at least May 7 and to Tashkent from April 28 till May 7," it added.
Airlines face higher costs as they reroute international flights after Pakistan shut its airspace to them amid tensions over the Pahalgam terror attack.
"There is extra fuel burn because of a more circuitous route, plus the addition of a technical halt will entail additional crew and landing costs too," said Sanjay Lazar, aviation expert and chief executive officer of Avialaz Consultants.
For narrow-body operations to Central Asia, there may be a greater cost impact since a technical halt in the Middle East may be essential or alternately a much longer route, necessitating temporary suspension of routes to Central Asia, according to Lazar.
IndiGo operates narrow-body aircraft to Central Asia. Flights to Baku —capital of Azerbaijan — and Tbilisi — capital of Georgia —will operate, but with an increase in flying time of 1–1.5 hours due to rerouting.
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