India-Pakistan Tensions: Government Reopens 32 Airports After Days Of Closure
The Centre has revoked the NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) issued for the closure of 32 airports across India during the military conflict with Pakistan. Airlines, however, are expected to gradually resume flight operations.
A new NOTAM, that replaces NOTAM G0555/25, has been released for the opening of these airports, a top DGCA official told NDTV Profit.
As many as 32 airports across the northern and western regions were shut and 25 flight routes were closed for operation. While these curbs were initially meant to be in place till Saturday morning, they were later extended till 5.29 am on May 15.
The Airports Authority of India, too, confirmed that a "reference notice" had been issued for temporary closure of 32 airports.
"It is informed that these airports are now available for civil aircraft operations with immediate effect," the AAI said in a statement.
Following the directive, airlines including IndiGo and SpiceJet have issued a travel advisory, informing passengers about the current situation and advising them to check their flight status before heading to the airport.
"As services gradually return to normal, there may still be a few delays and last-minute adjustments," according to IndiGo.
#6ETravelUpdate pic.twitter.com/DfBfSws8l1
May 12, 2025Most of the airports that were shut are located in the bordering regions of India-Pakistan border. These are: Adhampur, Ambala, Amritsar, Awantipur, Bathinda, Bhuj, Bikaner, Chandigarh, Halwara, Hindon, Leh, Jaisalmer, Jammu, Jamnagar, Jodhpur, Kandla, Kangra (Gaggal), Keshod, Kishangarh, Kullu Manali (Bhuntar), Ludhiana, Mundra, Naliya, Pathankot, Patiala, Porbandar, Rajkot (Hirasar), Sarsawa, Shimla, Srinagar, Thoise and Uttarlai.
The curbs on civilian aircraft were put in place in view of the military conflict between India and Pakistan that continued unabated since May 7 after Indian forces hit nine terror sites in Pakistan under Operation Sindoor and Pakistan's subsequent shelling of border areas.
However, on May 10, the two nuclear-armed neighbours reached a mutual understanding of ceasing fire across land, water and sea, prompting authorities to reopen airports for commercial purposes.
Notably, both Pakistan and India still have their airspace closed to each other, so neither can fly over the other's territory, which means Indian carriers will have to continue to reroute their international flights for now.
Since May 7, there have been nearly 1,000 flight cancellations, with an average of 170-180 flight cancellations a day. However, this is just under 5% of the total number of departures, considering India's average daily scheduled departures have been around 3,900 since the beginning of May.
Analysts say this is a fairly low rate of cancellations because most of these closed airports, including those based in Ambala, Jamnagar, Hindon and Jaisalmer, are also Indian Air Force stations. They don't see very high passenger traffic as many of the tier 2 airports in the country.
As far as airline losses are concerned, analysts at HSBC have estimated a potential revenue loss of Rs 17 crore for IndiGo, roughly Rs 11 crore for Air India and about Rs 2 crore for SpiceJet per day. On the basis of current cancellations, 8.5% of IndiGo's capacity (seats) will be impacted while Air India will have an impact on 18% of its capacity and SpiceJet 26%.
However, how profitably can these airlines deploy this spared capacity elsewhere, and how these cancellations will impact transit traffic will need to be evaluated to ascertain the actual financial impact, they said.
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