EASA posted a safety information bulletin on January 22 warning operators about the dangers of flying over what it considers the hostile territory of the Pakistan flight information regions (FIR) OPLR (Lahore) and OPKR (Karachi) below FL240. A few days earlier, the French DGAC prohibited all of its aircraft from flying through the region.
EASA said that a number of national aviation authorities are reporting increased risk to flight operation safety due to the likelihood of terrorist attacks in Pakistan. “All operators exercise extreme caution if planning to fly into, out of, within or above Pakistani airspace and closely monitor all relevant information, including notams,” EASA recommended.
When Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down over Ukraine last summer, a similar restriction was in place over that airspace up to FL320. MH17 was flying at FL330 at the time of the attack.