India Explores Hotan Air Route As Pakistan Airspace Ban Continues

India is exploring an alternative air route over China’s Xinjiang to reduce the impact of Pakistan’s continued airspace closure, civil aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu said on Tuesday. The move is aimed at easing pressure on long-haul flights from northern and western India.

The airspace shut after the Pahalgam terror attack in April 2025. Since then, carriers flying from northern and western India to Europe and North America have been forced to swing over the Arabian Sea towards Muscat. The extra leg has added 45 minutes to two hours to journeys and lifted fuel use and operating costs. Naidu said a corridor over Hotan in southwestern Xinjiang would cut that distance.

Hotan Route Talks

Talks are under way, Naidu said.

“We are looking at other alternatives. Discussion on the Hotan route is going on between the two countries. Our external affairs ministry (MEA) is engaging with their country..let us see how it goes, but we are trying alternatives..” Naidu told reporters on Tuesday.

If the talks succeed, Indian airlines flying from Delhi and Mumbai would head towards Leh, enter Chinese airspace near Hotan, turn toward Kyrgyzstan and then join existing routes to Europe, the UK and North America.

“All Indian carriers from the north and north west are following the L639 route to avoid the Pakistan airspace…. which increases their flying time by 2 hours,” a person familiar with the matter said. “The route may lead to significant savings for destinations like Georgia, Baku, Central Asia, and northern Europe,” a second person said.

Naidu did not give a timeline for opening the route. He also did not suggest that India and China had reached an agreement. Any new corridor would need bilateral approval and coordination on air traffic management and other operational issues.

Air India Impact

Air India faces the biggest hit.The longer routing has been especially costly for the flag carrier because it relies heavily on western long-haul routes from its Delhi and Mumbai hubs. The forced detour has raised costs across several sectors.

Campbell Wilson, former Air India CEO, estimated in 2025 that the airline lost ₹4,000 crore because of the Pakistan airspace closure.

Earlier Reporting Context

India and China had been holding talks at the diplomatic level for about a year over access to the Hotan route. No deal or start date was announced. Mint also reported that neither side had publicly set out the remaining hurdles.

Xinjiang proposal is complicated because the airspace is strategically sensitive, China’s military controls parts of it and the high terrain raises operational and emergency-diversion concerns. The report added that approval and coordination with Chinese military and civilian air-traffic authorities would be needed.

The Times of India reported on March 6, 2026, citing unnamed sources, that Air India’s proposed route had been found technically feasible for specified aircraft, though government clearance was still pending.