US Federal Aviation Administration, The FAA, has issued an emergency order prohibiting US carriers from flying in the over water area of Iranian airspace until further notice.
The main reason for this decision is the escalation of tensions and military activity within close proximity to high volume civil aircraft routes, as well as Iran’s willingness to use long-range missiles in international airspace.
Below is the full statement from The FAA:
United Airlines has suspended all flights between New Jersey’s Newark airport and both Indian cities, New Delhi and Mumbai, until at least September 1st.
“Given current events in the Middle East and the continued closure of Pakistani airspace, we have decided to suspend our service between EWR and Mumbai and New Delhi in India, resuming on Sept. 1, 2019.”
The U.S. ban does not apply to airlines from other countries, but OPSGROUP, which provides guidance to operators, said carriers globally would take it into consideration.
Airlines like British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Lufthansa, Emirates Airlines, Etihad Airways, Malaysia Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Qantas, and KLM said they will re-route their flights to avoid the area.
Sam Chui recently flew Singapore Airlines flight SQ345 from Zurich to Singapore. The flight had an almost 2 hour delay in departure due to the latest Middle East conflict and air traffic clearance in the Middle East. The flight track on the left photo took place on 22/04/19 and the one on the right photo on 22/06/19. The current flight route is avoiding flying over the Persian Gulf.
On Flightradar24, most of the fly through traffic is now avoiding the airspace in green. One exception is Qatar Airways flights (In which I think they have no other alternatives due to the blockade)
