India-China flights: The route to Hotan passes via South Block

Early this week, the Minister of Civil Aviation made a statement on how India is working closely with China to explore possibilities of allowing Indian carriers to overfly Hotan, which will shorten the route profile of flights to North America and open up options to fly to Central Asia. This is not the first time that a statement to this effect has come from a minister and shows that the government is taking efforts to ease the situation which the airlines are facing after the closure of Pakistani airspace for Indian airlines at the end of April 2025. The new…