NEW DELHI: In a huge relief for Indian travellers, flights between Delhi and the west will see travel times drop by up to four hours while Air India ’s flights to US will once again be nonstop. This follows Pakistan's decision to finally reopen its airspace for overflying after 140 days.Ever since Pakistan closed its airspace on February 27 after the Indian Air Force’s strike on the Balakot teror camp, Indian flights to the west were forced to take a much longer route. That meant greater travel time (including a fuelling stop for US flights) and a huge spike in expenses for airlines. Just a few days ago, Pakistan had said it would reopen its airspace only after India removed its fighter aircraft from forward bases, which seemed to indicate a prolonged delay.However, Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authority issued a notice to airmen (NOTAM) at 12.41am (India time) that said, “With immediate effect Pakistan airspace is open for all type of civil traffic on published ATS (air traffic service) routes.” Air India’s San Francisco-Delhi flight AI 184 — one of the longest non-stops globally — was the first by an Indian carrier to enter Pakistan airspace on its way to Delhi after February 27.SpiceJet’s Jaipur-Dubai SG 57 was among the first to enter Pakistan airspace from the Indian side on Tuesday morning while flying westwards.In a statement, AI said: “As Pakistan airspace is now open, aircraft utilisation will go up while crew requirement will fall by 25%. Operating cost for US-bound flights will drop by Rs 20 lakh one way and for Europe-bound flights by Rs 5 lakh. From Tuesday-Wednesday night flight operation may (return to route taken) before closure of Pakistani airspace.”IndiGo is also working on finally making its Delhi-Istanbul flight direct. So far, it has been taking a stop in Doha on both ways. An IndiGo official said: “It will become a direct flight by flying over Pakistan, Afghanistan and Caspian Sea. This route will allow us to avoid flying over the waters of Iran along the Persian Gulf-Strait of Hormuz-Gulf of Oman (US has disallowed its airlines from overflying and India has asked its airlines to avoid this stretch).”It remains to be seen when foreign carriers that have cancelled flights to India due to closure of Pakistan airspace now resume the same. US major United had suspended its Newark-Delhi flight on April 5 due to “continued closure of Pakistani airspace” and on June 21 the Newark-Mumbai flight was suspended due to US restrictions on overflying Iran airspace. On Monday night, hours before Pakistan airspace was reopened, it had said these daily directs would resume from October 26. Similarly, Air Canada’s Delhi-Toronto daily is suspended till August 1. Comments are awaited from United and Air Canada on whether they will prepone resumption of their suspended India flights now.Air India suffered the worst financially from this ban as, after Jet’s collapse this April, it is the only Indian carrier with flights to Europe and US that had to take longer routes. AI has lost Rs 491 crore till July 2. SpiceJet, IndiGo and GoAir lost Rs 30.7 crore, Rs 25.1 crore and Rs 2.1 crore, respectively, according to the data given by aviation minister H S Puri in Rajya Sabha on July 3.SpiceJet had cancelled its Delhi-Kabul direct since Pakistan's airspace closure. However, Pakistan airspace will not witness one Indian carrier over its skies now — Jet Airways — which was flying on February 27 and has since shut down.