Amid escalating military conflict with Pakistan, the Indian government Saturday said 32 airports across northern and western parts of the country have been shut for civilian flight operations until May 15. These airports have been closed in states including Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and the India-controlled Kashmir.
“The Airports Authority of India and relevant aviation authorities have issued a series of Notices to Airmen announcing the temporary closure of 32 airports across northern and western India for all civil flight operations,” a statement issued by India’s Ministry of Civil Aviation said.
Fighting between New Delhi and Islamabad has been going on unabated since Wednesday after India carried out deadly airstrikes on targets in Pakistan and the Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.
The civil aviation ministry said the AAI has also extended the temporary closure of 25 segments of Air Traffic Service routes within the Delhi and Mumbai Flight Information Regions due to operational reasons.
The ministry further asked airlines and flight operators to plan alternate routings as per current air traffic advisories. “The temporary closure is being managed in coordination with relevant Air Traffic Control units to ensure safety and minimize disruption,” the ministry said.
According to the Indian side, the strikes were undertaken to avenge last month’s killing of 26 people by gunmen in the Indian-controlled Kashmir. Since then militaries of the two countries are targeting each other with missiles, drones and shelling in the frontier areas close to their border and Line of Control in Kashmir.
Over the past three days, hundreds of flights were cancelled and many others diverted because of the closure of airports in the wake of the ongoing military conflict between the two nuclear neighbors.
