Pakistan airspace closure: India-Central Asia market most impacted 

Flights from Central Asia to India have been taking up to four hours longer than normal over the last three months due to Pakistani airspace closure. While the impact on Asia-Europe flights has been well documented in the media and travel sites, the impact on Central Asian airlines from Pakistan’s continued closure of airspace is more significant.

Kazakhstan’s Air Astana has suspended flights to India as the cost of significantly longer flight times has made its two Delhi routes impossible to sustain. Uzbekistan Airways and Turkmenistan Airways are equally impacted but have continued to serve India, despite hefty fuel bills which make it virtually impossible for the routes to break even. 

Uzbekistan Airways has maintained all three of its India routes – Amritsar, Delhi and Mumbai. Turkmenistan Airways has suspended Amritsar but has maintained Delhi.