Experts said India may face higher costs due to its growing aviation sector after Pakistan banned airspace.
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00:00We're talking today about Pakistan extending by a month the closure of its airspace,
00:08which is its sovereign airspace, as we say, to Indian aircraft and to Indian airlines,
00:15including military aircraft. We've done the same. We've also extended it by a month
00:19and both countries have issued what is called NOTAM, Notice to Airmen.
00:25What is the impact of this on Pakistan if they don't overfly Indian airspace?
00:30In any case, their national airlines called Pakistan International Airlines is in deep trouble.
00:35They have no money. There's lots of corruption.
00:37There was a scandal some years ago of Pakistani pilots, so-called pilots,
00:43having purchased their licenses from the local barbershop.
00:47And so Europe and the United States banned flights by PIA.
00:51And then they had some issues with all their crew members being overweight
00:56and some of their crew members would run away once they landed in the United States, all kinds of things.
01:01However, their flights are mainly to the west and whatever aircraft they have left, probably three or four.
01:07They go to Dubai, they go to Saudi Arabia and so on. They don't go to the east,
01:11so they don't really overfly Indian airspace and that's not going to hurt them.
01:15Now, will it hurt India that we are not able to overfly Pakistani airspace?
01:20To some extent, yes, certainly more than it will hurt Pakistan because as far as we are concerned,
01:25the aviation sector in India is booming, growing by 30-40% a year.
01:31New aircraft are being ordered, etc.
01:33And while the domestic aircraft sector, domestic tourism sector, domestic air travel sector is going much faster than the international air travel sector,
01:42yet with growing income levels, with growing purchasing power, the Indian consumer now wants to travel.
01:51He wants to go overseas.
01:52You know, we see the lines of people wanting visas to go to Europe or to the United States or to Japan or wherever.
01:59So, for those Indian travelers wanting to go west, certainly it will be an impact.
02:04Their fares will go up, the airlines will pass the fares on to them.
02:07But the real reassurance to us is that our people can afford it.
02:12We now have the power, the economic power to afford higher prices and we'll continue to do what we want.
02:18Pakistan will lose ultimately in terms of whatever revenues they were supposed to get if people are overflying
02:26or people land there, etc., etc., airlines land there.
02:29There's going to be a lot of trouble.
02:31But then no one has accused Pakistan of being clever.
02:35They are known to cut off their face to spite their nose.
02:40Pakistan declined permission to overfly its airspace to a domestic Indian Airlines
02:46that was experiencing turbulence on its approved regular route.
02:50So, it wanted to make a detour to avoid that turbulence to protect the lives of its passengers.
02:57But Pakistan declined that.
02:59Now, there are no clear international rules, especially as far as the International Civil Aviation Organization is concerned,
03:06ICAO, about a country's right to decline permission.
03:13What happens is that the airspace belongs to the country over which that air is.
03:17So, they have full sovereignty.
03:19They can allow people to come in.
03:20They can deny permission to aircraft to fly over it.
03:24Normally, for international flights, they don't interfere as long as that international flight does not pose a threat to the security of the country.
03:33But there is always an emergency exception.
03:36If an airliner is in trouble, if an airliner seeks permission for an emergency landing, if there's a sick person on board,
03:43if there is possibility that there might be some untoward incidents on the aircraft, then normally we would certainly do it.
03:52We allow the plane of whichever airlines, even if it's not scheduled to overfly in the territory, we allow them to land and then we take whatever action is required.
04:04So, what Pakistan did is contrary to all accepted norms of humane behaviour, of civilised behaviour.
04:11And at the same time, I would like to say that no one accuses Pakistan of believing in humanity or civilised behaviour.
04:20They just do what they want because for them, jihad overrides everything else.
04:26I say this with deep regret and at the same time with conviction that if something untoward had happened to this aircraft,
04:35Pakistan would celebrate by saying another victory for jihad.
04:38Now, the country that has this kind of rabid ideology, we can't expect anything better from them.
04:45They are unable to distinguish between right and wrong and that is fatal for a country.
04:52To be honest, we have the right and wrong.