Srinagar, May 12: Flight operations at Srinagar International Airport will resume on Tuesday, six days after a complete shutdown due to heightened India-Pakistan tensions involving drone activity, missile threats, and long-range weapon systems, officials on Monday said.
Director Srinagar International Airport Javed Anjum told Rising Kashmir that flights will operate from tomorrow. We have conveyed this to the airlines already.
“While the airport was ready for operations as early as Monday, airlines required additional time to reposition aircraft and coordinate passenger logistics. The airlines have to line up their aircraft and passengers. That is why they are starting tomorrow,” he added.
The shutdown of civil flight operations began on June 7 after the Indian Air Force (IAF) conducted precision strikes on terror infrastructure at nine locations in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
The strikes, part of Operation Sindoor, were carried out on May 7 in retaliation for the April 22 terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir. The suspension of flights was a precautionary measure as hostilities along the Line of Control escalated.
The decision to lift the airspace restrictions came after the IAF confirmed there were “no activities” observed in border regions during the night between Sunday and Monday.
Shortly afterward, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) issued a series of Notices to Airmen (NOTAMs), authorizing the reopening of 32 airports across northern and western India for civil aviation, including Srinagar.
Meanwhile a separate notification cleared the resumption of international air routes.
Flight schedules are already being restored. SpiceJet will operate its first outbound flight from Srinagar to Delhi at 8:10 AM on Tuesday, while IndiGo will restart its services with two scheduled flights.
Air India also announced it is progressively resuming operations to and from multiple northern cities including Jammu, Srinagar, Leh, Jodhpur, Amritsar, Bhuj, Jamnagar, Chandigarh, and Rajkot.
“We appreciate your understanding as our teams work on restoring normal operations at these airports,” an Air India spokesperson said.
The airport closure had also disrupted the Haj flight schedule from Jammu and Kashmir. The first batch of 178 pilgrims had departed for Saudi Arabia on May 4, but subsequent flights from May 7 to 12 were cancelled due to airspace restrictions. In total, seven Haj flights had to be postponed.
Shujaat Ahmad Qureshi, Executive Officer of the J&K Haj Committee, told Rising Kashmir that Haj flights from Srinagar will resume on May 14.
“There will be three flights on May 14 and 15 as per the original schedule. A new schedule will be announced shortly for the seven cancelled flights,” he said.
This year, 3,622 pilgrims from Jammu and Kashmir and 242 from Ladakh are expected to perform the annual pilgrimage. The Srinagar airport was initially scheduled to operate 11 Haj flights between May 4 and 15.
