Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Nov 3: Pakistan has refused permission for use of its airspace for the newly-introduced Srinagar – Sharjah direct flight injecting uncertainty about its future.
The flight to be operated by low-cost airline Go First, was inaugurated by Home Minister Amit Shah during his visit to J&K last week. Though Go First management said it was planning to continue with the flight for the time being, it might become difficult for the airline to bear the additional fuel cost it would have to suffer for diverting the flight path.
The Civil Aviation, External Affairs and Home Affairs ministries had been informed of the development that Pakistan disallowed permission for flying over the country, official sources said on Wednesday.
The denial has raised questions over the viability of the flight, raising fears it may meet the same fate as the 2009 Srinagar-Dubai service shelved due to low demand after Pak closed its airspace. Re-routing of flights from Srinagar to the United Arab Emirates (to ensure it doesn’t cross Pakistani airspace) adds over an hour of flying time, raising fuel and ticket costs.
The first Srinagar-Sharjah flight took off on October 23. According to flight tracking service, flights up to October 30 crossed Pak airspace but on November 2 the plane flew over Rajasthan and Gujarat, before turning west over the Arabian Sea. Go First has said it plans to continue offering the service (on alternate days) for now.
Former J&K Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has hit out at the government for clearing the flight without laying the necessary groundwork; the PDP chief called Shah’s flagging off the Srinagar – Sharjah flight a “PR stunt.”
“Puzzling the Government of India didn’t even bother securing permission from Pakistan to use its airspace for international flights from Srinagar. PR extravaganza without groundwork,” she tweeted.
Another ex-Chief Minister, National Conference leader Omar Abdullah, tweeted “very unfortunate.”
“Very unfortunate. Pakistan did the same thing with the Air India Express flight from Srinagar to Dubai in 2009-2010. I had hoped Go First being permitted to overfly Pak airspace was indicative of a thaw in relations but alas that wasn’t to be,” Abdullah tweeted. Last month, as Amit Shah flagged off the first Srinagar-Sharjah flight, Abdullah had tweeted a word of caution, saying he hoped “Pakistan had a change of heart…”
“Regarding the Srinagar-Sharjah flight announced today – has Pakistan had a change of heart and allowed flights originating from Srinagar to use its airspace? If not then this flight will die the way the Srinagar-Dubai flight died during UPA2,” he tweeted.
Pakistan has, however, been allowing Prime Minister Narendra Modi to use its airspace. Most recently the Prime Minister’s plane crossed Pak airspace to and from Europe, when he was attending the G20 and COP26 summits in Italy and Scotland, respectively. And in September, when the PM flew to the United States, his flight was also allowed to use Pak airspace.