Pakistan has extended its ban on Indian aircraft using its airspace for another month, until 4:59am on November 24, 2026, the Pakistan Airports Authority announced on Saturday. The restriction, in place since April 23, 2025, now stretches toward 19 months. It is usually reported as a one-sided punishment. But the ledger tells a different story: Air India estimates the closure costs it about $455 million a year, while Pakistan’s own defence ministry told parliament the ban cost Rs4.1 billion in lost overflight fees in just its first two months.
What the fresh NOTAM says
The PAA announced the extension in a post on X on Saturday, October 17, and a PAA spokesperson confirmed that a fresh Notice to Airmen had been issued, Geo News reported. It bars Indian-registered aircraft and planes owned, operated or leased by Indian airlines and operators, including military flights, from the Karachi and Lahore flight information regions. The new NOTAM took effect Saturday evening, replacing one due to expire October 24. The military-flights clause underlines how central air power is to this rivalry, which Pakistan’s air force has discussed in how the PAF says it outsmarted Indian Rafale jets.
Eighteen months of the same monthly ritual
The ban began on April 23, 2025, days after the Pahalgam attack in Kashmir, which India blamed on Pakistan; Islamabad denied it and proposed a neutral investigation. India closed its airspace to Pakistani airlines on April 30 in response. Since then, Pakistan has issued more than a dozen NOTAMs, each extending the restriction by roughly a month, announced days before the previous one expired. The ban has survived even the military escalation of May 2025. Pakistan used this lever after the 1999 Kargil conflict and the 2019 Pulwama crisis, when its airspace stayed closed for nearly five months. That closure cost Air India ₹491 crore by early July, according to India’s then aviation minister. The current standoff has already lasted more than three times as long.
What it costs India
Air India, the country’s only major long-haul carrier, has put numbers to the damage. In a document submitted to Indian officials last October, the airline reported fuel costs up by as much as 29 percent and journey times up to three hours longer on some routes, estimating the annual hit to profit before tax at $455 million, more than its full $439 million loss for fiscal 2024-25. Reuters reported the airline projected around $600 million in extra costs if the ban lasted a year. In the first days of the ban, the Delhi-Chicago flight stretched from 14 hours 47 minutes to more than 19 hours including a fuel stop, Flightradar24 data showed. Air India suspended its Delhi-Washington service from September 1, 2025, blaming the continued closure. Air India says the curbs now bite harder than last year, as the Iran conflict forces its flights even further south.
What it costs Pakistan
Every time a foreign airliner avoids Pakistani airspace, Pakistan collects no overflight fee, and airlines pay those fees to whichever country they fly over instead. Pakistan’s defence ministry told the National Assembly that the ban cost the country PKR 4.1 billion in overflight fees between April 24 and June 30, 2025, the Hindustan Times reported. That covered only the first two months; no newer official figure has been published. The ban is therefore also a self-inflicted revenue wound: Pakistan is paying billions of rupees for the satisfaction of keeping Indian aircraft out. Converted at today’s USD to PKR exchange rate, Air India’s $455 million annual loss is a far larger number, which is why Islamabad can treat the ban as a winning trade, but it is not a free one.
India’s search for an exit
New Delhi is not sitting still. India’s civil aviation minister, Ram Mohan Naidu, confirmed in late September that diplomatic-level talks with China are underway over a possible air corridor through the Hotan area of southwestern Xinjiang, which would let Indian flights bypass Pakistan entirely. Air India and IndiGo have run feasibility studies on the route, but no agreement has been reached. Naidu also said India is pushing airlines to add international flights from southern cities, which the closure does not affect. On this side of the border, PIA’s Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner deal with Norse Atlantic shows Pakistan’s flag carrier planning a bigger long-haul future.
What to watch next
Neither government has signalled any negotiation toward lifting the restrictions. The pattern is now fixed: a fresh NOTAM a few days before each expiry, the next one due in the week before November 24. Until then, every westbound flight out of Delhi keeps taking the long way round, and both countries keep adding to a bill neither publishes in full. For the latest national news from Pakistan, follow PakMirror’s rolling coverage.
