PM is considering a complete closure of Air Space to India, a complete ban on use of Pakistan Land routes for India… https://t.co/BCne20klFT — Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) 1566912470000

NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD: Pakistan yet again threatened to close its airspace for overflying to and from India on Tuesday, less than one and a half months after it had re-opened the same .Pakistan PM Imran Khan chaired a cabinet meeting following which his cabinet colleague Fawad Chaudhry tweeted,“PM is considering a complete closure of air space to India, a complete ban on use of Pakistan land routes for Indian trade to Afghanistan was also suggested in cabinet meeting, legal formalities for these decisions are under consideration... #Modi has started we’ll finish!”Earlier, the 138-day-long closure of Pakistan airspace after the Balakot strike had seen airlines operating between parts of South Asia , with Delhi at its heart, and the West taking the longer Mumbai-Arabian Sea-Muscat-Gulf route and beyond. This led to rise in flying time; more travel time for east coast-bound flights to the US, including an additional stop; increased expenses due to more fuel burn; crew requirement and fuelling stops; and decreased connectivity with airlines like United and Air Canada pulling out of some India routes.However, Indian airlines were expecting a rerun of this after escalation of tension between India and Pakistan in recent days.A senior Air India (AI) pilot said: “We prepared our contingency plans on August 5 itself (when India nullified Article 370 and Pakistan started issuing threats). We will simply repeat what we did last time. Kicking in those plans will take from three hours to a day depending on the time of day when and if Pakistan actually closes its airspace as new flight plans will have to be filed and new time slots at airports abroad will need to be sought.”However, to implement these plans the government will have to give funds to AI for extra expenses on more fuel burn, crew requirement and additional fuelling stops. Oil companies have since last week stopped supply at six airports to AI group due to huge arrears. “We have designated a person just to monitor notice to airmen (Notam) that Pakistan issues and are monitoring the situation constantly. Pakistan’s threat won’t work and we are ready for their action of airspace closure if the government gives us funds for the extra expense that this move will again force us to incur,” said another senior pilot. India’s biggest airline IndiGo is also in a state of readiness — financially too, unlike AI — to deal with the airspace closure whenever it happens.Chaudhry’s tweet comes a day after Khan vowed during a televised address to the nation on Kashmir that Pakistan “will go to any lengths” to support the cause of the Kashmiri people.The threat comes at a time when some routes pulled out by foreign airlines during the 138-day-long closure (from February 27 to July 16) are yet to see any activity. US mega carrier United had suspended its Newark -Delhi nonstop on April 5 due to closure of Pakistani airspace and is supposed to restart the same from September 6. Air Canada had suspended its daily Delhi-Toronto nonstop on June 14 and had restarted it on August 1. Air India had also suspended operations on some routes like Delhi-Birmingham which restarted recently.Closure of Pakistan airspace may again see a re-run of longer flying times and particularly more expensive tickets due to airlines’ enhanced expenses.