With the U.S. pullout now complete and Kabul International Airport under Taliban control, U.S. airlines will no longer be able fly over virtually all of the country without prior authorization.
U.S. Airlines Cannot Fly Over Afghanistan
During the pullout, U.S. forces controlled the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul and also managed air traffic control over Afghanistan. With the final U.S and coalition troops having left Afghanistan last night, air traffic control has gone dark.
While it is expected that the Taliban will seek to resume it, potentially even with the same air traffic controllers, the Federal Aviation Administration has banned U.S. carriers from operating over Afghanistan:
“Due to both the lack of air traffic services and a functional civil aviation authority in Afghanistan, as well as ongoing security concerns, U.S. civil operators, pilots, and U.S.-registered civil aircraft are prohibited from operating at any altitude over much of Afghanistan.”
There is a small exception. U.S. carriers can use “one high-altitude jet route near the far eastern border for overflights. That’s known as the Wakhan Corridor in eastern Afghanistan, a small strip with Pakistan to the south and Tajikistan to the north. When crossing, an airline passes over the Pakistan border, then spends about two minutes in Afghan airspace before entering Tajik airspace.
The route is frequently used by U.S. and European airlines flying to India. For example, on August 25th United flight 868 from San Francisco to Delhi passed over the Wakhan Corridor.
Even so, any U.S. civil aircraft operator that wants to fly into/out of or over Afghanistan must receive prior authorization from the FAA.
Commercial flights are expected to resume, though it remains to be seen how many carriers will be willing to continue service to Kabul or Kandahar.
CONCLUSION
As the final U.S. solider left Kabul International Airport, the Taliban celebrated. Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban spokesperson, said:
“At 12 o’clock tonight, the last American troops left Kabul airport, on which account Afghanistan was completely liberated and independent.”
Now comes the hard part…keeping the peace. That includes creating and maintaining a functional air traffic control system. For now, though, the airspace over Afghanistan will be off-limits to U.S. airlines and likely many other nations as well.
images: a view of Afghanistan outside the window of my flight from Dubai to Kabul (2012)
After 20 years of oppression by the American imperialists, today the Afghan people have gained their independence. The Taliban have designated today as Joe Biden Day to forever celebrate his heroic actions in the name of Islam.
Where was your snark during the 20years when thousands of US troops died over there protecting a people unwilling to protect themselves?
Probably sucking on your pacifier then…
That they were even there in the first place was all thanks to your country’s commander-in-chief at the time.
Pete, are you new here? Joe is our resident troll and we love him.
But though not directed to me, we should have seen the writing on the wall:
https://liveandletsfly.com/the-afghanistan-dilemma/
Afghans were willing. More Afghan troops died than Americans died in Vietnam.
A big problem was that the Americans did not properly train the Afghans. America uses highly technical ways of fighting. That’s because that method results in fewer troop deaths. However, it is extremely expensive and technically very demanding to fight that way.
The US military does not know how to fight with troops using horses, guns mounted on pickup trucks, and a few armored cars, all without air and satellite support. That’s the way the Afghans should have been trained. So when the US suddenly withdrew from over 200 remote outposts, all supplied by air and internet, the Afghans could not replace the departing Americans. Without US support of auxiliary functions and back office help, the US style of fighting could not continue.
The US is just as much at fault. It’s too easy to blame Afghans and say they just ran.
It’s as if the Star Trek Federation helped the US. Suddenly, they leave. We can’t maintain those phasers and photon torpedoes. To fire, those phasers require network support from special satellites and also operating a warp drive. Tell me where the warp drive expert in the US is located? There are no American warp drive experts. Americans can also not read the instructions because they are written in Vulcan. (Half of Afghan men are illiterate).
During those 20 years, about 60000 afghan soldiers have died while trying to protect themselves.
With all due respect, the FAILURE to understand Afghanistan, was the same failures in Iraq and Vietnam. Nation building and bring our ways to them will fix all ills? Saying this as someone who has lost people he’s known in ALL three of those wars and known MANY civilians in Afghanistan Those making the idiotic decisions to go in beyond initial goals are the problem. Those not understanding in Afghanistan that it was never a nation are the problem – it was loose affiliated regions that wanted nothing to do with each other.
The best thing that would have come out from US and coalition involvement would have been splitting the country along those lines and not pretending a British spec’d border from EONS ago was still OK
I’ve been to Afghanistan a HANDFUL of times with different groups (governmental, UN, NGO’s) and those who got it were told to SHUT UP and let others handle it. Thousands of US and coalition forces killed, HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of civilians, and still this week, fools in the US said “We should be staying”
The Taliban are abysmal, ISIS-K is horrendous but others holding your hands, you never grow to what you want. Any change for Afghanistan has to come from within
“Now comes the hard part…keeping the peace.” — Peace hasn’t been achieved by any stretch. Plenty of credible reports of horrific violence. The reign of terror that Afghanistan is about to experience will be long and tragic.
Hopefully they’ll reopen the civilian side of Kabul airport soon though I’ve read news that some repairs are needed before it can reopen safely.
I’ve always heard the Wakhan corridor is a beautiful place. That area of Afghanistan has been quite peaceful for decades.
“Now comes the hard part…keeping the peace.”
And to kick off this effort at peace, they hung a guy from a Blackhawk helicopter. One can see how Biden was so trusting of such a fine group of troglodytes.
I sure hope no U.S. carrier uses the cited corridor for an overflight to India. Can you imagine the reaction of the feckless, demented old fool in the WH in the event a U.S. airliner was downed during such a transit? Exactly nothing.