ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has rolled over its blanket closure of airspace to Indian civil and military aircraft for another month, with the Pakistan Airports Authority issuing a fresh Notam Wednesday that pushes the deadline to 4:59am on July 24, 2026.
The previous order expires on June 24. The new directive runs from 5:50pm on June 16 and covers both of Pakistan’s flight information regions Karachi (OPKR) and Lahore (OPLR) leaving no corridor open to Indian-registered operators across the entire managed airspace.
Pakistan Airspace Ban Extended
According to a Focus Pakistan source familiar with the regulatory process. the decision was made by the PAA following its submission through the usual Notam route, an indication that Pakistan is now viewing the grounding of flights from India as permanent policy rather than as a temporary measure in reaction to a crisis.
Both sides started closing down airspace to one another’s planes after a militant strike in the Pahalgam region of Indian-administered Kashmir in late April 2025. It caused many deaths and led to several charges filed by India against Pakistan. However, Indian govt was unable to provide sufficient evidence for the same, and Pakistan refused the claims while insisting on an impartial probe.
Why Pakistan Closed Airspace
Pakistan’s top brass announced the airspace shutdown on April 24, 2025, bundling it with a broader set of retaliatory measures after India moved first with its own hostile steps against Islamabad. Since then the two governments have exchanged closures on a rolling basis, each extending its own ban in rough lockstep with the other.
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The standoff turned kinetic in May. Pakistan’s military claimed its jets intercepted and shot down seven Indian fighter aircraft during aerial engagements that month the sharpest military confrontation between the nuclear-armed neighbours in decades. New Delhi has not confirmed the losses. Independent verification of battlefield claims from either side remains unavailable, but the episode hardened positions in Rawalpindi and gave Pakistan’s security establishment domestic justification for maintaining the restrictions indefinitely.
Both airlines have already changed their routes. They have shifted the routes of their international flights to circumvent the closure of the restricted areas, thereby burning extra fuel, adding more hours for the flight crew, and increasing travel time. Aviation analysts tracking South Asian routes note that the longer the closure runs, the weaker the commercial argument for reopening becomes networks adapt, and adaptation becomes the new baseline.
Indian Airlines Face Higher Costs
The PAA’s jurisdictional remit covers both FIRs under which all commercial and general aviation traffic entering or transiting Pakistani airspace must operate. Wednesday’s Notam applies uniformly across both zones. No partial exemptions appear in the directive.
Neither India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation nor its Ministry of External Affairs had commented publicly on the latest extension at the time of filing. India continues to bar Pakistani aircraft from its airspace and has extended the restriction multiple times since the standoff began.
No resumption talks appear on the calendar for either government. Each successive 30-day rollover reduces the urgency to negotiate and raises the cost of eventual normalisation. The industry has its next hard date July 24. Beyond that, nothing is scheduled.
Nayab Fatima is a university graduate and an emerging media professional with a strong passion for journalism, research, and independent reporting. She specializes in developing well-researched, fact-based, and analytical news stories covering a wide range of sectors, with particular expertise in technology, telecommunications, aviation, and the automobile industry.
