Pakistan had closed its airspace on February 26 after India’s air strikes in Balakot in retaliation for the Pulwama massacre on February 14. An Air India spokesperson said: “As the Pakistan airspace is now open, aircraft utilisation will go up while crew requirement will come down by 25 per cent…. Air India, which flies to Europe, US, Gulf, Saudi Arabia, will now start taking the direct route. Reuters had said in a report some time ago that the closure of the Pakistani airspace had affected as many as 350 flights a day. IndiGo, India’s largest airline by domestic market share, was unable to start direct flights from Delhi to Istanbul because of the closure of the Pakistan airspace.

Source: The Telegraph July 16, 2019 21:19 UTC