Explainer: Who holds rights over Airspace?
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
September 17, 2019
Recently, Pakistan once again closed
its Airspace for Indian flights. But who controls Airspace over a country? What
are the rules governing such control? Are there charges to be paid for using
one’s Airspace? Here is a detailed explainer.
Pakistan has recently denied, the President of India, to use their Airspace for a visit to Europe. In an earlier instance in June 2019, Pakistan decided to allow PM Narendra Modi, to fly over its air space for a trip to Kyrgyzstan after a request from Indian Government, which was later declined by India. These instances occurred in the aftermath of Pakistan closing down its airspace for Indian flights following the Indian Airstrikes in Balakot. Eventually Pakistan has opened up its space for commercial flights in July 2019, which was again partially shut post the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu & Kashmir.
But, what are rules and regulations around the airspace ownership of a country? What determines the extent to which a country can claim ‘Airspace’? Are there any losses that countries suffer by shutting down their airspace?  Here is a detailed explainer.
Control over Airspace
determined by territorial extant and mutual agreements
Article 1 of the  Convention on International Civil
Aviation, withregards to sovereignty of  Airspace states that ‘every State has complete and
exclusive sovereignty over the airspace above its territory’. Further, theterritory of any state includes 12 nautical miles of territorial waters off thecoastline. Airspace which is not within any country’s territorial limit isconsidered as ‘International Airspace’.
The United Nations Convention on theLaw of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the Convention onInternational Civil Aviation (Chicago Convention) define the provisions in regards to Airspace. Countries canmake agreements to have control of a section of the International Airspace. ForExample, USA has authority over a significantportion of the Pacific Ocean, which is beyond the territorial boundary definedabove.
Flight permits required
by flights to fly over or to land in a Country’s Airspace.
A Flight permit is the permission which is required by an aircraft to fly over, land or make a stop in the airspace belonging to a specific country. All the countries have their own regulations regarding the issuance of flight permits. Generally, there are charges to be paid by the companies operating these flights for the use of services which could include:
Each country has its own regulationsto grant these permits and also define their own rate list for extending theseservices.
There are different types of permits which can be sought based on the purpose of using a country’s airspace.
Airlines or their respective agentscan directly apply for these permits from the respective countries. The chargesare billed by the respective national aviation authority to these operators.
In India, the DGCA determines the
charges to be levied on International flights for using Indian Airspace
Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA)is the regulatory body for Civil Aviation in India which discharges variousfunctions including – Certifying the Airports, registration of aircrafts,licensing, formulating standards for air safety, investigating incidents,Coordinating with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) etc.
Meanwhile, the Airports Authority ofIndia (AAI) is the statutory body which isresponsible for creating, upgrading , maintaining and managing civil aviationinfrastructure in India. It also takes care of Air Traffic Management (ATM) andCommunication Navigation Surveillance (CNS) of Indian Airspace.
The DGCA fixes the charges to belevied upon the flights using the Airport Infrastructure for landing ornavigation and using Indian Airspace to flyover. As per the amendment to the charges in 2017, the different chargeslevied on International flights are the following.
Route Navigation and Facility
Charges (RNFC) areone of the prominent charges paid by the flights while flying over a country’sairspace.
The Landing charges levied on international flights forlanding in Indian Airspace are displayed in the following image.
Separate charges are levied oninternational flights for using Terminal Navigation and Landing services in International Airports. The following charges are applicable at Delhi,Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Trivandrum, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Goa & Cochinairports.
In airports other than thosementioned above, the following charges would be applicable for internationalflights.
Apart from RNFC and TNLC, chargesare levied on air carriers using services like Housing, Parking and NightParking services.
Loss and additional expenses
incurred by both India and Pakistan because of Airspace shutdown by Pakistan.
Shutting down of the airspace has anegative effect on both sides i.e. the country who has shut down the airspaceand those countries whose flights have to look for longer alternative options.
Similar to the charges levied byDGCA for using Indian airspace for various services, Pakistan Civil AviationAuthority (PCAA) levies charges on the flights usingPakistan’s airspace. Indian flights are one of prominent users of Pakistan’sAirspace and many international flights use its Airspace to reach India.
Pakistan’s Federal Minster for Aviation addressing a Press conference in July 2019 stated that PCAA suffered a loss of ₹ 8.5 billion (USD 50 million) because of Airspace restrictions since February 2019.
Indian flights also had to bear extra costs because of rerouting the flights. Answering a supplementary question in Rajya Sabha on 17 July 2019, the government mentioned that Air India has suffered a loss for  ₹ 430 crores over the four-month period when Pakistan closed its airspace.
Featured Image: Rights over Airspace