Pakistan Issues New NOTAM: Airspace Ban on Indian Aircraft Extended to June 23–24, 2026

Pakistan's Airports Authority (PAA) issued a new Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) on May 19, 2026, extending the ban on all Indian-registered aircraft — commercial, private, and chartered — from using Pakistani airspace until June 23/24, 2026 (04:59 AM PKT). The restriction covers both the Karachi and Lahore Flight Information Regions. The previous NOTAM had set a deadline of May 24, 2026; this extension pushes the closure by an additional month. The ban was first imposed on April 23, 2025 following the Pahalgam terrorist attack and Operation Sindoor, and has been repeatedly renewed every four to six weeks since. India closed its own airspace to Pakistani aircraft reciprocally on April 30, 2025. The ongoing mutual airspace closure forces Indian carriers — including Air India, IndiGo, and SpiceJet — to route westbound flights (to Europe, the Gulf, North America) over Central Asia and around Pakistan entirely, adding 1.5–3 hours of flight time per sector and costing the Indian aviation industry an estimated ₹800–1,200 crore (approximately $100–145 million) per month in additional fuel and operating costs. Pakistani carriers are similarly excluded from the shorter routing through Indian airspace. The NOTAM extension signals that no political breakthrough is imminent in the India-Pakistan diplomatic freeze: with airspace normalization traditionally one of the earliest confidence-building measures in de-escalation scenarios, the month-long renewal is read by analysts as reflecting continued Indian intransigence on any gesture that could be interpreted as rewarding Pakistan before 'credible and verifiable' counter-terrorism action.