The recent talks between India and Pakistan on the resumption of overflights received a setback when the respective delegations departed without achieving any results. Pakistan’s objections centered on unilateral termination of mutual arrangements by India while the Indian delegation emphasized the sovereignty of nations in making policy choices. Apparently, this initial meeting of between the two parties was only to “let off steam” in the absence of a positive direction from the governments to their respective delegations. This cannot possibly help in paving the way for early resumption of overflights, raising fears that the Indian Prime Minister’s peace initiative will take a long time to pay dividends.

Arrangements for overflights between nations are decided on factors of security and reciprocity. Firstly, all parties are expected to abide by various international conventions laid down by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), which has standardized norms for scheduled air operations that have to be adhered to by all operators without deviations. Both India and Pakistan are signatories to these conventions and have been accepted by global civil aviation operators. The second point for consideration is routing of scheduled flights through each other’s territory. This aspect is equally simple as countries designate Air Traffic Services (ATS) routes which channelise and regulate traffic on such airways under air traffic control procedures. Universally, the ATS routes are monitored by radar and communication networks to prevent infringements and deviations. The extent to which a laid down procedure is effective depends on the monitoring capacity of the country’s air defense network. Both India and Pakistan are well equipped in this regard, to the satisfaction of international operators, who treat this monitoring as being of help rather than an obstruction. The standard routing and procedures should have a universal application for all operators, irrespective of the country of registration.

Reciprocity, on the other hand, is a fulcrum around which all bilateral issues between nations are resolved, and this applies to facilitating mutual overflights by scheduled operators registered in their respective countries. In essence, this is a contract between nations and becomes an exercise for bargaining a profitable deal for domestic operators. In this case, India’s Air India and Indian Airlines and Pakistan’s Pakistan International Airlines would be involved. Currently, these operators cannot traverse each other’s territories for proceeding to destinations beyond and thus have to take a circuitous route. This means more expense on fuel, time and leads to loss of revenue. The gains, obviously, accrue to other airlines that do not face these impediments.

In the current atmosphere of distrust, issues beyond the basic question of overflights dominated the discussions. Although, the two delegations came out with a joint statement resolving to meet again, the points of contention between them were extensively aired in the media. The blame game erupted afresh. This made a mockery of the whole process of meeting and pushed the agenda back to an indeterminate period. The matter of overflights overshadowed the issue of landing in each others country, which got lost in the controversy.  

There is a human angle to this quagmire, which are the difficulties of people in India and Pakistan who need travel via Dubai and at much greater personal expense. Children from Pakistan with heart conditions, for example, had to take the surface route via the Wagah border to go to Bangalore for heart surgery. Despite, the laudable steps taken by the Indian government to ameliorate the financial hardship for a small number of children, the difficulty remains.

There is a realization that the long list of unsolved issues between India and Pakistan, cannot be sorted out quickly. But a clear distinction needs to be made between innocuous issues of trade, commerce and societal linkages and major issues like territorial disputes. In expressing its intention to discuss all outstanding issues, including the problem of Kashmir, the Indian government acknowledges its commitment. A prioritisation of talks in conjunction with Pakistan would help. The key to success, however, would be pragmatism.