Commercial airlines on Wednesday rerouted the flight through the middle East to avoid any possible danger against the backdrop of escalating tensions between the US and Iran.
It is expected that the modified flight plans will inconvenience some 15,000 passengers a day, will increase the flight time on average 30-90 minutes and will cause serious damage to the aviation industry.
«In war the first casualties are always air transportation», — said the adviser on aviation in Dubai mark Martin, pointing to the bankruptcy of airlines during the wars in the Persian Gulf and Yugoslavia.
According to Martin, via airspace of Iran and Iraq conducted daily not less than 500 commercial flights.
Recall, today, January 8, after takeoff from Tehran crashed Ukrainian passenger plane, the investigation into the causes of the tragedy.
Two Kazakh airlines Air Astana and SCAT – said that they considered the possibility of changing the route or cancel their flights over Iran after the crash, which killed all 176 passengers.
Polish national carrier PLL LOT said that he’s changing routes to bypass the airspace of Iran.
French airline Air France and Dutch airline KLM said on Wednesday that they have suspended all flights over Iranian and Iraqi airspace for an indefinite period. German airline Lufthansa and two of its subsidiaries have also cancelled flights to Iraq.
The Russian aviation Agency «Rosaviation» has released an official recommendation for all Russian airlines to avoid flying over Iran, Iraq, the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman «because of the existing risks for the safety of international civil flights.»
Australian airline Qantas said that changes its route London-Perth to avoid the airspace of Iran and Iraq until further notice. The airline Malaysia Airlines said that «due to recent events,» the aircraft will avoid the airspace of Iran. In Singapore Airlines also said that their flights to Europe are redirected to avoid Iran.
Air Canada rerouted my flight from Toronto to Dubai via Egypt and Saudi Arabia, to avoid flying over Iraq.
The Federal aviation administration of the United States noted that bans American pilots and aircraft carriers to fly in the airspace of Iraq, Iran and some Gulf countries. The Agency warned of a «possible mistake or incorrect identification of» civil aircraft in conditions of high tension between the US and Iran.
Such restrictions often are precautionary to prevent confusion of civil aircraft with the aircraft involved in armed conflict.
Flights of Emirates between Dubai and Baghdad have also been cancelled.
«The safety of our passengers, crew and aircraft is the number one priority and will not be jeopardized,» — said in a statement, Emirates.
However, Qatar Airways said its flights to Iraq run in normal mode.
