India and Pakistan celebrate air link

The first commercial flight between India and Pakistan in two years arrived in the Indian capital today, amid rising hopes of peace between the South Asian nuclear rivals.

“Fantastic! It’s the beginning of a great year,” said Captain T. Muzaffar, who piloted the Pakistan International Airlines plane from the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore.

The flight is the result of improved relations between the two South Asian giants, who have scaled back tensions in recent months and raised hopes they will put decades of hatred and mistrust behind them.

“This will increase people-to-people contact. It will also lead us to resuming our dialogue,” said Syed Munawar Bhatti, deputy head at the Pakistani Embassy in New Delhi.

At the airport, officials from India’s state-run Bharat Petroleum Corp. handed red roses to welcome the 42 travellers.

“We are very, very happy. We hope the communication channels are not shut again,” said passenger Jahangir Sharif, a Pakistani woman in her 50s.

The PIA flight later returned to Lahore with 114 passengers, including Indian and Pakistani businessmen, Indian filmmakers and journalists, said Yasmin Haroon, an airline spokeswoman.

Since April, the two countries have also restored bus services, resumed full diplomatic ties and observed a cease-fire between forces lined up on either side of the Himalayan region of Kashmir.

The area is split between the two countries, but both claim it in its entirety. More than 65,000 people, mostly civilians, have died in the conflict since 1989.

PIA chairman Ahmed Saeed, who saw off the flight, said new routes would begin shortly.

“The resumption of this service will definitely benefit both countries,” he said, adding that service to the Indian cities of Madras and Hyderabad were on the table for future talks.

From the Indian side, Indian Airlines has decided to fly from New Delhi to Lahore and from the Indian financial hub of Bombay to the Pakistani port city of Karachi.

Although Indian commercial flights are to start on January 9, a special Indian Airlines plane was to fly delegates and journalists on Friday for this week’s summit of South Asian nations in Islamabad.

India and Pakistan severed air service and road and railway links amid tensions that led them to the brink of war. The last flights were on January 1, 2002.