According to flight tracking portal Flightradar24, several inbound Air India flights from Europe were using routes passing through the Pakistan airspace to return to Delhi.
Pakistan has fully reopened its airspace to civilian flights, almost five months after it was closed during a dispute with India.
The end of airspace closure will benefit all global flights from the eastern side including Indian aircraft.
Pakistan's announcement came hours after United Airlines Holdings Inc said it was extending the suspension of its flights from the United States to Delhi and Mumbai in India until October 26, citing continued the Pakistani restriction.
Pakistan fully closed its airspace on 26 February after the Indian Air Force (IAF) struck a Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorist training camp in Balakot in retaliation for the Pulwama attack on February 14.
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Pakistan has reopened its skies for civilian flights, which had been forced to make detours after the fighting between New Delhi and Islamabad over Kashmir earlier this year.
The Civil Aviation Authority in a statement said Pakistan issued a written notification (NOTAM) in this regard at 7:11 pm on Monday. On its part, the IAF announced on May 31 that all temporary restrictions imposed on the Indian airspace post the Balakot strike had been removed.
In India, the biggest pain was suffered by Air India that conducts various worldwide flights from Delhi to Europe and the US. The national carrier had lost ₹491 crore till July 2 due to the closure of the Pakistan airspace. Interglobe Aviation Ltd controlled Indigo Airlines, India's largest by market share, incurred a loss of 251 million rupees due to the closure of the Pakistani airspace, while Spicejet Ltd incurred losses of 307.3 million rupees, Puri said.
The state-owned carrier, Air India, suffered the worst losses.
A CAA spokesman confirmed to AFP that the eastern airspace along the border with India had been reopened. "The flight landed here about 1.5 hours before the schedule time that the longer route would have taken", said an official. Our target is to ensure from Wednesday the Delhi-Istanbul flights becomes a direct flight by flying over Pakistan, Afghanistan and Caspian Sea.
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