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India - Pakistan direct flights!

msb314

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I was searching flights on Google flights recently and saw that there is a direct flight from Lahore to New Delhi services by PIA and a direct flight from Mumbai to Karachi services by Air India.

My question is who even travels on these flights lol? Given the current political situation - how are the travelers able to obtain a visa for either country? :13:

In fact, how are these flight routes even remotely profitable for either airline in the current political landscape?
 
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I was searching flights on Google flights recently and saw that there is a direct flight from Lahore to New Delhi services by PIA and a direct flight from Mumbai to Karachi services by Air India.

My question is who even travels on these flights lol? Given the current political situation - how are the travelers able to obtain a visa for either country? :13:

In fact, how are these flight routes even remotely profitable for either airline in the current political landscape?

Air India does not fly to Pakistan. In fact, they never did. India-Pakistan flights used to be operated by the erstwhile Indian Airlines.

Now no Indian operator flies to Pakistan. PIA does two flights to India, Karachi-Mumbai and Lahore-Delhi, both twice weekly.

I think both sides still give out visas to each other's citizens, although they are very few in number and very difficult to get.

Most likely, PIA does not make any money on its India flights.
 
Surprising but I guess these flights are mostly used by medical patients, Big business houses, foreigners, Major players of big corporate houses who have to travel between countries as part of global business.. Doubt any normal person gets a visa to travel..
 
Air India does not fly to Pakistan. In fact, they never did. India-Pakistan flights used to be operated by the erstwhile Indian Airlines.

Now no Indian operator flies to Pakistan. PIA does two flights to India, Karachi-Mumbai and Lahore-Delhi, both twice weekly.

I think both sides still give out visas to each other's citizens, although they are very few in number and very difficult to get.

Most likely, PIA does not make any money on its India flights.

Yes you are right - Air India does not fly to Pakistan anymore. On its Wikipedia page - I am seeing its route to Larachi was terminated a while back, not sure if by Air India or Indian Airlines.
 
Bump!

Given the current political situation - what will become of flight PK 270?

IMO - FAA needs to suspend this route until the situation improves.
 
PIA used to throw anything and everything on their BOM flights - from a tiny ATR to a 747. Loved watching them glide down N1 en route to Runway #27.
 
IMO - FAA needs to suspend this route until the situation improves.

These flights are/were for the elite - NRIs/overseas Pakistanis, diplomats, high level security officials, et al. If these flights were removed, they will either fly corporate jets or transit via the Gulf.
 
These flights are/were for the elite - NRIs/overseas Pakistanis, diplomats, high level security officials, et al. If these flights were removed, they will either fly corporate jets or transit via the Gulf.

PIA is still government owned and the flag carrier so give the current political situation - it may be best if this route is suspended.

As you mentioned - people who need to travel from Pakistan to India and/or vice versa will still be served by the Gulf airlines or Sri Lankan Air.
 
PIA is still government owned and the flag carrier so give the current political situation - it may be best if this route is suspended.

As you mentioned - people who need to travel from Pakistan to India and/or vice versa will still be served by the Gulf airlines or Sri Lankan Air.

PIA currently only flies to DEL - a 1 x weekly A320 which gets suspended on and off owing to poor traffic. Suspending that measly service is more for PR than anything else substantial.

If you really want to hit India with a jackhammer in the aviation stakes, you should suspend overflight rights for all Indian carriers over Pakistan. Air India in particular would be screwed, with several 77L/77W US non-stops out of its DEL hub already operating at the edge of their flight envelope during the winter:

international-network.jpg
 
PIA currently only flies to DEL - a 1 x weekly A320 which gets suspended on and off owing to poor traffic. Suspending that measly service is more for PR than anything else substantial.

If you really want to hit India with a jackhammer in the aviation stakes, you should suspend overflight rights for all Indian carriers over Pakistan. Air India in particular would be screwed, with several 77L/77W US non-stops out of its DEL hub already operating at the edge of their flight envelope during the winter:

international-network.jpg

Yes you are right that the PK 270 flight is nothing substantial but sometimes a PR stunt can have a strong morale affect to appease the masses and politicians.

In addition to banning the use of Pakistani airspace for Indian airlines - I believe Pakistan has the right to deny its airspace to ALL airlines flying to a particular country. This of course would impact the European airlines and United the most - especially their flights to New Delhi.
 
Yes you are right that the PK 270 flight is nothing substantial but sometimes a PR stunt can have a strong morale affect to appease the masses and politicians.

In addition to banning the use of Pakistani airspace for Indian airlines - I believe Pakistan has the right to deny its airspace to ALL airlines flying to a particular country. This of course would impact the European airlines and United the most - especially their flights to New Delhi.

If I was Pakistan, I would do it this minute - much like Saudi/UAE/Bahrain have encircled poor Qatar.
 
If I was Pakistan, I would do it this minute - much like Saudi/UAE/Bahrain have encircled poor Qatar.

Yeah but I doubt our brainless politicians are even aware that they can do this yet alone planning or implementing an air space ban :facepalm:
 
Yeah but I doubt our brainless politicians are even aware that they can do this yet alone planning or implementing an air space ban :facepalm:

They are most certainly aware of it. The only point of contention being that this is a BIG move and would most likely invite retaliatory action - soft or hard - by multiple nations which Pakistan can ill afford at this point (at any point, really).

KSA could get away with it because of the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain backing it.
 
They are most certainly aware of it. The only point of contention being that this is a BIG move and would most likely invite retaliatory action - soft or hard - by multiple nations which Pakistan can ill afford at this point (at any point, really).

KSA could get away with it because of the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain backing it.

How so?

India cannot retaliate because Pakistan has very little air traffic coming from east asia - PIA cancelled its route to Tokyo and the Chinese carriers should be easily able to avoid Indian airspace. Only Thai Airways will be impacted given they fly daily non-stop service to Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad.

Due to their location and close proximity - the gulf carriers would not be impacted by such a move.

Regarding the European and North American carriers - most of them do not fly to Pakistan (with the exception of British Airways who will be resuming service to Islamabad in June) so I'm not sure how they may retaliate against Pakistan. Only Turkish Airlines would be impacted given they also have daily non-stop service to Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad.
 
How so?

India cannot retaliate because Pakistan has very little air traffic coming from east asia - PIA cancelled its route to Tokyo and the Chinese carriers should be easily able to avoid Indian airspace. Only Thai Airways will be impacted given they fly daily non-stop service to Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad.

Due to their location and close proximity - the gulf carriers would not be impacted by such a move.

Regarding the European and North American carriers - most of them do not fly to Pakistan (with the exception of British Airways who will be resuming service to Islamabad in June) so I'm not sure how they may retaliate against Pakistan. Only Turkish Airlines would be impacted given they also have daily non-stop service to Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad.

All flights inbound to DEL/IXC/ATQ/JAI/LKO from the West/North West - Air India or not - would be impacted. It is not economical to fly around via Gujarat (the Himalayan airspace is obviously restricted at the other end) so while India would seemingly be squeezed by such a move, Pakistan's better bet diplomatically - seeing that we're not at all out war - would be to hike up overflight fees like Russia / Iran instead of a blanket ban, however appealing that may seem as an option.

Let's see how this plays out, from past experience, nothing will happen and 2 weeks later the news cycle will move on with the aunties on both sides of the border having extracted all the political mileage out of it in the intervening time.
 
Come to think of it, the airspace card has never been played by either country - even during a full blown conflict like Kargil 1999.

Be it deliberately or by oversight, both governments are happy to let civilian overflights carry on even during a war so I don't expect anything to happen now.
 
The only direct flight at this moment in time is going to be rocket launchers departing & landing from both side of the border every 10 seconds..
 
No need to do anything stupid. Let the indians do what they want. Their's no point getting to their level
 
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