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Flights between Pakistan and India set to resume

India and Pakistan agreed yesterday to restore airline overflight and landing rights by Jan. 1, two years after the South Asian nuclear rivals ended all transportation links amid tensions that took them to the brink of war.

The agreement -- reached during talks between aviation and defense ministry officials meeting in New Delhi -- was announced in a joint statement that said, "The two sides agreed to resume simultaneous air links and overflights with effect from Jan. 1, 2004, on a reciprocal basis."

"The talks have been successful," said India's director-general of civil aviation, Satendra Singh. He met with six Pakistani officials, led by Mohammed Ashraf Chaudhry, a retired general and a secretary in Pakistan's defense ministry.

If the flights are restored by Jan. 1, it will be just in time for a South Asian nations summit in Pakistan that Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has said he will attend.

Before air links were cut in January last year, Pakistan International Airlines flew from Lahore to India's capital, New Delhi, and Indian Air Lines flew from Bombay to Pakistan's commercial hub Karachi. Both countries' carriers could fly over the other's territory to other destinations.

Hopes of a breakthrough at the New Delhi talks had brightened after Pakistan's President General Pervez Musharraf on Sunday said his country was ready to allow Indian carriers to fly over Pakistan air space.

Flights from India to Europe and Central Asia currently have to take a two-hour detour over the Arabian Peninsula because they cannot pass through Pakistani air space. India's ban on Pakistani overflights makes long detours necessary on flights to Nepal and China.
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