India is in talks with China to explore the use of its airspace in the Xinjiang region by Indian commercial airlines, in a bid to reduce the longer flying time and higher costs involved in operating flights to western countries amid the continued closure of Pakistani airspace, Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu said on Tuesday.

“We are looking at other alternatives. Discussion on the Hotan route in China is going on between the two countries. Our External Affairs Ministry is engaging with the country. Let us see how it goes, but we are trying alternatives,” Naidu told journalists.