Forget War, Pakistan Losing Crores Of Money By Blocking Indian Flights & Closing Airspace - Know How Much

As India downgraded Pakistan's diplomatic ties in view of the Pahalgam terrorist attacks, Islamabad closed the airspace for Indian airlines and Indian registered aircraft. While it has an impact on the Indian travellers as the travel time and fares will have gone up due to longer routes, Pakistan is also being hit badly as it is going to lose crores of rupees.

Pakistan Is Paying A Price For Closing Its Airspace For India

Not many are aware of the fact that Pakistan earns a substantial amount from allowing flights to fly from its space. With its decision to stop India from using airspace, it will lose the overflight fees from the third-largest aviation market.

How Much Money Pakistan Going To Lose By Blocking Indian Flights?

Airlines are required to pay various fees which come to hundreds of dollars every time they use a foreign country's airspace. The charges includes overflight and navigation fees for flyover rights, and additional terminal navigation, landing, and parking charges if the aircraft lands. Although Indian carriers do not operate commercial flights that land in Pakistan, they routinely operate about 100 flights per day that use Pakistani airspace for overflights.

As per the reports, over 800 international flights per week were reportedly passing through Pakistani airspace.

Pakistan is estimated to charge approximately $580 in overflight fees for a Boeing 737, which is among the smallest aircraft used by major Indian airlines. These fees scale with the aircraft's maximum takeoff weight and the distance flown- meaning larger aircraft incur significantly higher costs. For example, a Boeing 777, which can weigh 2.5 to 3 times more than a 737, may be charged anywhere between $1,200 and $1,700 per overflight.

Pakistan Lost Big Money During Balakot Strike

This is not the first time that Pakistan has big revenue by closing its airspace for India. Following the Balakot strikes carried out by India in 2019, Islamabad had taken similar decision. At that time, 400 flights were affected and the Pakistani Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) reportedly lost about $232,000 per day from overflight charges alone, and when additional fees-such as landing and parking-were included, the figure climbed to $300,000 daily.

PIA, meanwhile, suffered estimated daily losses of $460,000 due to disrupted international services and longer domestic flight routes. Altogether, the combined daily financial hit to both CAA and PIA was around $760,000, culminating in an overall loss of nearly $100 million over the five-month period, according to an earlier report in Hindustan Times.

Meanwhile, in a tit-for move, India is considering closing its airspace to Pakistani carriers. It will force the Pakistani airlines to reroute their flights over China or Sri Lanka to reach Southeast Asian destinations like Kuala Lumpur. "The decision is under consideration and not yet finalised," CNN-News18 quoted an official as telling.

Apart from closing the airspace, Pakistan suspended all treaties and agreements including Simla agreement with India. It came after New Delhi put the Indus Water Treaty in abeyance.

Thus Pakistan, without even going to war against India, is going to pay a huge price for closing its airspace for India as it is losing crores of rupees.