To the evident relief of the state government of Jammu and Kashmir as well as to airlines and travellers, the Indian Air Force (IFC, Delhi International) has withdrawn its earlier order of late August to close Jammu Airport for two weeks from October 1.

Official sources told the Excelsior, the state's largest circulation newspaper, that the decision to resurface the runway had been reviewed on the intervention of India's Ministry of Defence following criticism by the state government and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) due to the prevailing situation in the region and an upcoming season of festivals.

Commercial flights will not be suspended and the runway work will now be carried out at night, the sources told the newspaper. An earlier request by the state and the AAI to the air force to do the resurfacing at night had been rejected, prompting them to appeal to the ministry.

Pravat Ranjan Beuria, the airport's director, confirmed the change in plan and said that the airlines operating to Jammu, which had earlier stopped bookings for the 15 days in question, had been notified. Six carriers currently operate six routes to Jammu, according to the ch-aviation capacities module, the two biggest in terms of frequencies being IndiGo Airlines and SpiceJet, followed by GoAir, Air India, Vistara, and Alliance Air (India).