A-I Re-Routes Flights To Avoid Pakistani Airspace

Air India, in a bid to avoid flying over the Pakistani airspace following the US counter-attacks on Afghanistan beginning Sunday, will be re-routing its flights to the US, London and Paris.

A-I, which used to cross the Pakistani airspace on flights from India to Europe and the US on its regular flights, will now take a circular route crossing the Arabian Ocean instead. The move, aimed at ensuring flight safety, will increase the flight time by about half an hour. As a result, it also means more financial problems for the national carrier, as it will be forced to incur an increased fuel bill.

An official spokesperson of the airline said, "Our Bombay-Delhi-London-New York flight was re-routed this morning. It flew down from Delhi, took a circular route over the Arabian Sea and then up over Sharjah." resulting from the additional journey time but with no commensurate increase in the air fares. Air-India now flies eight times a week to the United States via London. It also operates three flights a week to Paris. All these flights will be re-routed, the spokesman said.

"It involves about thirty minutes of extra flying time for flights which go via Delhi. For others it does not make much difference," he said.

Industry sources said all the airlines will be forced to follow the same travel course, in order to ensure passenger safety. "The additional miles covered will obviously mean extra fuel requirements and larger fuel bills for all the airlines, including Air India," an airline industry watcher said.

Most international airlines are already under tremendous financial pressure, caused by the dropping passenger load factors and increase in insurance charges. Air India has already cut down its number of flights to the US, London, Paris and Singapore, and as a result, might suffer losses due to inability to put its leased aircraft to effective use.