Indo-Pak airspace closure leads to increase in planes over Oman's skies

Muscat: The closure of Pakistani and Indian airspace to all incoming and outgoing commercial aircraft contributed to a 30 percent increase in the number of flights arriving in Oman.

The Sultanate's Public Authority for Civil Aviation reported that Oman's eastern airspace had seen an increase in the number of planes over the last 24 hours.

A statement by the authority read, "Oman opens its skies to connect East and West. This has been a phenomenal effort by Muscat's air traffic control centre, which managed an unprecedented number of international flights smoothly, adhering to the highest air safety standards, even as the number of planes in the eastern part of the Omani airspace increased by 30%."

Several flights that were headed to India and Pakistan needed to be diverted in the wake of this airspace closure, with many of them subsequently landing in Oman. Pakistan had closed its entire airspace, forcing inbound flights to divert to other locations, while outbound domestic and international flights were grounded.

Similarly, airports in the northern Indian cities of Jammu, Srinagar, Amritsar, Chandigarh and Dehradun were among those affected by the partial closure of India's airspace. All of these cities are located close to India's land border with Pakistan.