Indian airlines may face Rs 77 cr weekly addl expenses on airspace curbs

Mumbai/ New Delhi: Indian airlines are likely to face additional weekly expenses of Rs 77 crore for international flights operated from north Indian cities as the airspace curbs result in increased fuel consumption and longer flight durations.

An analysis of the number of overseas flights and back-of-the-envelope calculations based on increased flight time as well as approximate expenses by PTI showed that the additional monthly operational costs could be over Rs 306 crore.

Amid escalating tensions between India and Pakistan due to the Pahalgam terror attack, Pakistan on Thursday said it will bar Indian airlines from using its airspace.

Alternative flight path is resulting in additional flying time of up to 1.5 hours for international flights from Delhi and north Indian cities.

A senior airline industry official, who has extensive experience in the commercial side, told PTI that the additional time for a 16-hour flight to North America will be around 1.5 hours.

For 1.5 additional hours, the cost will be around Rs 29 lakh, including landing and parking charges on account of a technical halt in an airport enroute, the official said.

Similarly, the additional flight time for a 9-hour flight to Europe will be about 1.5 hours, and the extra cost will be around Rs 22.5 lakh.

In the case of Middle East flights, the additional time will be around 45 minutes, and the resultant cost will be about Rs 5 lakh, the official said.

Indian carriers are scheduled to operate more than 6,000 flights one way to various international destinations in April, data from aviation analytics firm Cirium showed.

Over 800 weekly flights are operated by Indian airlines to and from north Indian cities to overseas destinations, including North America, the UK, Europe and the Middle East, as per an analysis of the Cirium data.

There are little over 3,100 flights both ways in a month, and on a weekly basis, the count comes to nearly 800 flights.

Out of the total monthly flights, nearly 1,900 are operated with narrow-body planes and some wide-body aircraft to the Middle East. Considering the additional cost of Rs 5 lakh per flight for the extra 45 minutes, the overall expenses will be about Rs 90 crore.

With respect to Europe and North America, the total two-way flights are nearly 1,200. On the basis of additional flying time of 1.5 hours costing around Rs 29 lakh for North America services and Rs 22 lakh for Europe flights, the total amount will be about Rs 306 crore per month.

As per the analysis, the total additional monthly expenses will be about Rs 307 crore and Rs 77 crore on a weekly basis. These figures are based on rough estimates.

Apart from higher fuel consumption, longer flying hours also pose payload and aircraft availability issues, as well as crew flying duty time limitation challenges for airlines.

On April 25, IndiGo said that around 50 international routes operated by it will require longer sectors and hence may be subject to some slight schedule adjustments.

"With the same restrictions and limited rerouting options, unfortunately, Almaty and Tashkent are outside the operational range of IndiGo's current fleet," it had said in a statement.

Flights to Almaty stand cancelled from April 27 until at least May 7 and to Tashkent from April 28 until May 7.

Air India, Air India Express, SpiceJet and Akasa Air have not made announcements about flight cancellations due to the airspace curbs.

Air India operates widebody A350s, B777s and B787s while IndiGo operates B787 and B777s taken on lease. The remaining carriers -- Air India Express, SpiceJet and Akasa Air -- operate narrow-body planes such as A320s, A321s and B737s.