New Delhi, 30 September 2026: Amidst the long-term ban imposed by Pakistan on its airspace for Indian aircraft, India has now intensified work towards finding a new and strategic way to reach western countries. High level talks are going on between India and China to get a new air route through 'Hotan' of Xinjiang. Union Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu has also confirmed that talks are going on in this regard. However, the exact time frame for when this new route will become operational has not yet been decided.
Pakistan has completely closed its airspace for Indian flights from April 2025. Due to this ban, Indian Airlines flights from Delhi and Mumbai to Europe, Britain and North America have to bypass Pakistan and take a long detour through the Arabian Sea and Muscat. Due to this alternative route, flight time has increased from 45 minutes to 2 hours, due to which the operating costs and fuel consumption of airlines have increased significantly.
This dispute is not just one-sided. India has also closed its airspace to Pakistani aircraft since 'Operation Vermillion'. That means both the neighboring countries have imposed mutual air restrictions on each other's aircraft. However, the biggest impact of this ban is on international long distance flights of Indian airlines. Before Pakistan's airspace was closed, about 100 to 150 Indian aircraft used to pass through there on a daily basis. Due to closure of this route, Air India alone lost approximately Rs. This time has come to bear a huge financial loss of Rs. 4 thousand crores.
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What is the plan of 'Leh-Hotan' air corridor?
According to the proposed plan, westbound flights originating from Delhi and Mumbai will be diverted to Leh in the north. From there the planes will enter Chinese airspace via China's Hotan (Xinjiang region). After this, these planes will be connected with the existing air routes going to Europe, UK and North America via Central Asia. If this proposed corridor gets the green signal, the dependence of Indian airlines on Pakistani airspace will completely reduce.
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All eyes on India-China talks
Earlier in 2019, even after the Balakot airstrike, Pakistan had closed its airspace for 5 months, yet Indian airlines had to pay Rs. There was a loss of more than Rs 550 crore. Currently, efforts are going on between India and China to reach an agreement on important issues like technical possibilities of this route, airspace permission, security and navigation. If these talks are successful, it will prove to be a game-changer step for the Indian civil aviation sector.