Pakistan on Tuesday denied use of its airspace to Go First’s Srinagar-Sharjah flight, inaugurated by Union Home Minister Amit Shah during his visit to the Valley last month. Pakistan’s denial forced the flight to take a longer route and fly over Gujarat to reach its destination in the UAE, the government officials said on Wednesday.
“Pakistan has refused its airspace use to Go First’s Srinagar-Sharjah flight. It has raised concerns over the use of their airspace. Matter reported to the concerned ministries; MoCA, MEA & MHA are looking into it,” news agency ANI quoted a government source as saying.
Go First, previously known as GoAir, had started direct flights between Srinagar and Sharjah from October 23 onwards. According to officials, till October 31, GoAir’s Srinagar-Sharjah flight was going through Pakistan airspace. However, Pakistan on Tuesday did not allow the flight to pass through its airspace, and therefore, the service had to take a longer route, going over Gujarat, adding around 40 minutes to the flight time, they said. There were no reasons given by the Pakistan government as yet for refusing the permission to the flight, officials said.
This is the first service between Jammu and Kashmir and the UAE after 11 years. Air India Express had started a Srinagar-Dubai flight in February 2009 but it was discontinued after some time due to low demand.
Reacting to Pakistan’s action, former J&K chief minister and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah tweeted “very unfortunate. Pakistan did the same thing with the Air India Express flight from Srinagar to Dubai in 2009-2010. I had hoped that @GoFirstairways being permitted to overfly Pak airspace was indicative of a thaw in relations but alas that wasn’t to be.”
(With PTI inputs)
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