Air Canada is resuming flights to northern India today after Pakistan announced it would reopen its airspace Friday despite ongoing tensions between the two nuclear powers.
The airline says its two daily flights to Delhi from Toronto and Vancouver are back on tonight after a two-day suspension affecting as many as 1,100 passengers. Air Canada says it has found alternate routes for the two airplanes, with Pakistan's Civil Aviation Authority declaring open skies starting tomorrow.
The two routes were among thousands disrupted this week as airlines cancelled or rerouted flights that pass through the heavily travelled India-Pakistan air corridor.
Pakistan closed its airspace Tuesday following an airstrike by Indian aircraft inside Pakistan. The next day, Pakistan's military claimed it shot down two Indian warplanes in the disputed region of Kashmir and captured a pilot, raising tensions further between the two countries.
Pakistan's prime minister pledged on Thursday his country would release the captured Indian fighter pilot, a move that could help defuse the most serious confrontation in two decades between the nuclear-armed neighbours.
Nonetheless, fresh skirmishes erupted today between Indian and Pakistani soldiers along the so-called Line of Control that divides disputed Kashmir between the two states