India-UAE Flights in Limbo after Pakistan Shuts its Airspace In Defiance
Flights between India and the UAE will have to find a way around Pakistan, in a stand-off stemming from Tuesday J&K terror attack.
UAE, April 24, 2025: Passenger flights as well as freight planes to and from India have been caught in mid-air. Quite literally. Two days after the terror attack in India’s Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam resort town which claimed the lives of 26 people, Pakistan has decided to close its airspace to Indian flights. As a result, almost 30 flights between India and the UAE were cancelled on Thursday. The action by Islamabad apparently comes in retaliation to India’s suspension of the 65-year-old Indus Water Treaty, which Pakistan has been tremendously dependent on.
With Pakistan airspace off-limits, Indian carriers plying in the UAE - which includes Air India, Air India Express and IndiGo - will have to change course and chart out alternative routes. These contingency plans are sure to cause severe delays, longer flight time and greater distances to cover, not to mention, tremendous monetary losses. This scenario will especially impact travellers from the UAE to major Indian cities like Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru. Indeed, nearly 150 million people fly between the Gulf country and India annually.
If this impasse continues over the subsequent weeks, tens of thousands of travellers between India and the Middle East – not to mention, North America, UK and Continental Europe – will be left grounded. Of course, there will be other options to go airborne with carriers such as Emirates, Etihad, flydubai and Air Arabia. But these are not as frequent or as inexpensive as their Indian alternatives. Slot rescheduling and air traffic congestion also pose considerable challenges for UAE- Indian flights.
Placing this obstacle in the way of India planes is not an unprecedented move by Paksitan. Back in February, 2019, after the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district, Paksitan reacted in a similar way after the Indian Air Force carried out strikes on Pakistan terror camps. In the three-month stalemate, Indian carriers collectively incurred losses to the tune of 540 Crore Rupees.
Meanwhile, an Indian expat from Dubai also perished in Tuesday’s carnage. Niraj Udhwani, a 33-year-old financial expert, was on a short holiday in Kashmir when he was shot dead. After the Indian government announced plans of cutting off or diverting water from the Chenab and Jhelum rivers which provide water to millions of Pakistan residents, Islamabad hit back by sending home Indian diplomats and cancelling visas for Indian citizens. As of now, there is no telling how long this current stand-off will continue.
