MUSCAT: Oman’s eastern airspace is seeing an increase in the number of planes over the last 24 hours following the closure of Pakistani and Indian airspace.

The Sultanate’s Public Authority for Civil Aviation reported that Oman opens its skies to connect East and West.

“This has been a phenomenal effort by Muscat’s air traffic control centre, which managed an unprecedented number of international flights smoothly, adhering to the highest air safety standards, even as the number of planes in the eastern part of the Omani airspace increased by 30%.”

Several flights that were headed to India and Pakistan needed to be diverted in the wake of this airspace closure, with many of them subsequently landing in Oman.

A terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir on February 14, India’s air raid across India-Pak LoC and Pakistan’s ‘retaliation’ has led to closure of ariports.

Pakistan had closed its entire airspace, forcing inbound flights to divert to other locations, while outbound domestic and international flights were grounded.

Similarly, airports in the northern Indian cities of Jammu, Srinagar, Amritsar, Chandigarh and Dehradun were among those affected by the partial closure of India’s airspace. All of these cities are located close to India’s land border with Pakistan.