“Flight 6E-645, operating from Amritsar to Ahmedabad, had to take a deviation over Atari into Pakistani airspace due to bad weather. The deviation was well coordinated with Pakistan by Amritsar air traffic control via telephone. The crew was in continuous contact with Pakistan on radio telephony and the flight landed in Ahmedabad safely post the deviation,” IndiGo said in a statement.
It is not uncommon for aircraft from Pakistan and India sides to deviate into the other’s airspace due to bad weather. Such issues are handled by coordination with the ATC. The most recent instance was on May 4, 2023, when Pakistan International Airlines’ Muscat-Lahore flight PK 248 was not able to land at its destination due to heavy rain. The Boeing 777 was diverted to Multan when it entered the Indian airspace en route. The pilots of this flight informed Indian ATC who then allowed it to use the airspace to proceed to the diversion airfield.
Flights of all Indian airlines to and from the west overfly Pakistan and airports in the country are designated diversion airfields in case a plane needs to land there due to technical reasons. There have been several instances of Indian carriers diverting to Karachi.
What Pakistan does not allow are international flights between Jammu and Kashmir and the west to overfly its airspace. Whether it was erstwhile Go Air’s international flights between Srinagar and United Arab Emirates or the Haj charter currently being operated by SpiceJet (on wet lease planes) from Srinagar, these flights are not cleared to overly Pakistan. As a result, they have to take a much longer route by flying down to Gujarat and then take Arabian Sea without overflying the Karachi airspace.