National carrier Air India has suffered a loss of INR 491 crore due to closure of airspace by Pakistan following counter-terrorism action taken by the Indian Air Force in February 2019.
Spicejet has suffered a loss of INR 30.73 crores while IndiGo has suffered a loss of INR 25.1 crore. GoAir which started international operations recently suffered a loss of INR 2.1 crore. The data for Air India is until 2nd July 2019, while that of Spicejet and GoAir is until 20th June 2019. IndiGo’s number are up to 31st May 2019. The information was disclosed in Rajya Sabhya – the upper house of Parliament of India.
Air India understandably has higher losses as it has a functional hub at New Delhi and sees majority of its international operations – including flagship long haul non-stop flights to USA and Europe from New Delhi. The airline has since started operating its flights with a technical stop and changed the routing based on operational needs.
IndiGo operates to Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Doha from New Delhi and sees additional flying time due to airspace closure. The airline also flies to Dubai from Amritsar and Chandigarh. The biggest impact for IndiGo had been flights to Istanbul where it had already announced a second daily but is yet to start operations. Its existing daily flight operates one-stop via Doha and depending on weather also makes a stop at Ahmedabad – inbound.
For Spicejet, the closure has led to shutting its link to Kabul and additional flying time for flights to Dubai from Delhi, Jaipur and Amritsar.
It is unclear as to how long the airspace will be closed. All restrictions on the Indian side have been removed while Pakistan has opened limited airspace for carriers.
NetworkThoughts 