Airlines keep avoiding Middle East airspace after US attack on Iran

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Airlines continued to avoid large parts of the Middle East on June 22 after US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, according to flight tracking website FlightRadar24, with traffic already skirting airspace in the region due to recent missile exchanges.

“Following US attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities, commercial traffic in the region is operating as it has since new airspace restrictions were put into place last week,” FlightRadar24 said on social media platform X.

Its website showed airlines were not flying in the airspace over Iran, Iraq, Syria and Israel. They have chosen other routings, such as north via the Caspian Sea or south via Egypt and Saudi Arabia, even if it results in higher fuel and crew costs and longer flight times.

Missile and drone barrages in an expanding number of conflict zones globally represent a high risk to airline traffic.

Safe Airspace, a website run by Opsgroup, a membership-based organisation that shares flight risk information, said on June 22 that the US attacks on Iran may increase risks to US operators in the region.

“While there have been no specific threats made against civil aviation, Iran has previously warned it would retaliate by attacking US military interests in the Middle East – either directly or via proxies such as Hezbollah,” Safe Airspace said.

Since Israel launched strikes on Iran on June 13, carriers have suspended flights to destinations in the affected countries, though there have been some evacuation flights from neighbouring nations and some bringing stranded Israelis home.

In the days before the US strikes on Iran, American Airlines suspended flights to Qatar, and United Airlines did the same with flights to Dubai.

Safe Airspace said it was possible airspace risks could now extend to countries such as Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar,