Pakistan refuses use of its airspace for international flights from Srinagar

SRINAGAR — In a surprising move, Pakistan has disallowed flights, taking off from Srinagar International Airport for Sharjah, from flying over its airspace, sources said on Wednesday.

Sources told Kashmir News Service (KNS) that the authorities in Pakistan have disallowed the flights taking off from Srinagar for Sharjah from flying over its territory.

They said that the flight will now be an hour-and-a-half longer as planes will have to fly to Sharjah via Udaipur and Ahmedabad and overfly Oman.

“The flight will also be more expensive, an additional burden for passengers, most of whom are Kashmiris. The Ministry of External Affairs and the Civil Aviation Ministry have been informed about Pakistan’s decision,” they said.

Meanwhile, former chief minister and vice-president National Conference, Omar Abdullah said that the decision by the authorities in Pakistan was very unfortunate and said that they had done the same in 2009-10.

“Very unfortunate. Pakistan did the same thing with the Air India Express flight from Srinagar to Dubai in 2009-2010. I had hoped that @GoFirstairways (Go First Airways) being permitted to overfly Pak airspace was indicative of a thaw in relations but alas that wasn’t to be,” he tweeted.