Airspace reopening

Govt’s months-long airspace shutdown after post-Pulawama standoff cost the CAA around Rs8.5 billion

The government’s months-long airspace shutdown after the post-Pulawama standoff cost the Civil Aviation Authority around Rs8.5 billion. The massive loss was caused mostly by loss of revenue from flights heading to and from India.

In typical Pakistani fashion, Federal Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan tried to present a silver lining by claiming that while it was a huge loss for our aviation industry, the restriction hit India harder than Pakistan as their losses were twice as high. Be that as it may, India’s economy is also eight times as large as Pakistan and has the ability to absorb significantly larger unforeseen events than ours.

A day earlier, Pakistan had reopened its airspace for all civil traffic. Pakistan had fully closed its airspace following the Indian attack near Balakot in February. In March, airspace was partially opened, but a ban remained in place for flights to and from India.

India had also closed its airspace for flights to and from Pakistan. The tit-for-tat closure only served as an annoyance for business travellers and tourists, and a delay for international trade, while costing both countries billions.

The aviation minister, meanwhile, also said it was the government’s priority to revamp PIA and increase its fleet to 45 by phasing in 14 new aircraft gradually by 2025. Given that the PIA’s pockets are even emptier than the state’s, it remains to be seen how ‘new’ these planes are, and how much they cost the taxpayer.

The average taxpayer knows the PTI is just showing its ability to squander our money with the same efficiency of the PML-N or the PPP.

Fortunately, this time around the government has made it even easier for PIA to run losses. Inflation, devaluation, and new taxes have made air travel so prohibitively expensive that the average Pakistani can’t even afford to look at a plane, let alone fly in one. Security and economic concerns are interrelated. But what point is there in securing a broken economy?

Published in The Express Tribune, July 20^th, 2019.

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