Pakistan loses more than $2mn in three-day airspace closure

In this file photo, announcement of flight cancelations is posted at the Thai Airways ticket counter in Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok on Feb. 28, 2019. (AFP)

• Move impacted over 400 flights and 25,000 passengers
• Pilgrims visiting Saudi for Hajj thank government for treating them as guests in “difficult time”

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) lost more than $2 million during a three-day airspace closure which was in place due to rising tensions with India, following a recent incident in Kashmir, officials said on Monday.
Islamabad closed its airspace on Wednesday last week after the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) shot down an Indian fighter jet for violating the country’s airspace before capturing one of its pilots.
The move impacted more than 400 flights, leaving nearly 25,000 travelers stranded in different countries. The situation also forced various international air carriers to reroute their flights, with officials suspending civil and commercial air traffic operations as a precautionary measure, too.
Pakistan resumed partial flight operations at four airports on Friday with the CAA spokesperson, Farah Hussain telling Arab News on Monday that airspace was expected to be reopened by Tuesday across the nation.
“We can’t reveal the exact amount of loss incurred to the CAA due to airspace closure because this is classified information,” she said when pressed to talk about the loss in income.
However, a retired Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) captain, Aamir Kamal, said the CAA “charges approximately $5,000 per hour from airlines using our airspace.”
“All flights from Europe to the Far East and back fly over Pakistan. They are charged by the amount of time they remain in our airspace,” Kamal, who served the airline for 38 years, told Arab News.
Due to the closure of airspace, thousands of Pakistani Hajj pilgrims and passengers were stranded in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, among other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.
“As per the directive of Prime Minister Imran Khan, we are bringing back passengers from Saudi Arabia and the UAE on a priority basis and this special flight operation may complete in the next couple of days,” Mashood Tajwar, PIA spokesperson, told Arab News.
He added that the administration had initiated a “swift action with a well thought-out strategy to normalize the flight operations as quickly as possible.”
To take care of stranded Pakistani pilgrims, Saudi Arabia’s Hajj Ministry had announced — just a day after the airspace closure — that “all Pakistani pilgrims stranded in Haramain Sharifain will be the guests of the Saudi Ministry for Hajj and Umrah till the resumption of flights.”
Meanwhile, the Saudi Hajj ministry said that all arrangements for Pakistani pilgrims were being made on the instructions of the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and under the guidance of King Salman bin Abdulaziz, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques.
Abid Hussain, a Pakistani pilgrim in Saudi Arabia who returned to Islamabad on Sunday morning, said that he was scheduled to fly from King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah on Thursday for Islamabad, but his flight was canceled due to the closure of the airspace in Pakistan.
 “Thousands of Pakistani pilgrims were stranded there, scrambling to rebook their flights as some of them were also short on funds,” he told Arab News. “But we are thankful to the Saudi government for facilitating us and treating us as their guests in a difficult time.”