Flight tracking data reveals that following an Israeli attack on Iran, airlines swiftly altered their flight routes over Iran. Some diverted to other airports, while others brought their aircraft back to their original departure locations on Friday.
According to flight tracking service FlightRadar24, Iran blocked flights from its western airspace for several hours following the incident and closed its airports in Tehran, Shiraz, and Isfahan.
By 04:45 GMT, airports and airspace had reopened, while shutdown notices on a database maintained by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration were removed.
Flydubai announced that it has canceled its Friday flights to Iran before the airports reopened. It added that one of its earlier flights had returned to Dubai.
According to Flightradar24, an Iran Air flight headed for Tehran from Rome was rerouted to Ankara, Turkey.
The tracking website indicated that certain carriers, including Emirates, Flydubai, Turkish Air, Wizz Air Abu Dhabi, and Belavia, were still operating over the area of Iran’s airspace that was accessible in the early hours of Friday’s raid.
“We are monitoring the situation closely and will make changes to our flight paths in consultation with the relevant authorities,” the statement stated.
Following record rainfall in the United Arab Emirates, a challenging week for carriers operating in Dubai was made worse by the closure of Iranian airports and airspace.
FlightRadar24 reports that since Tuesday, 1,478 flights—or almost 30% of all flights—have been canceled to and from Dubai.
Days after Iran attacked Israel with missiles and drones, Israel launched its attack. Before that, many Western and Asian aircraft had already been avoiding Iran and its airspace.
Due to persistent security concerns in the area, Germany’s Lufthansa (LHAG.DE) decided to prolong the suspension of flights to Tehran until the end of the month on Wednesday.
Due to concerns over the Middle East, Australia’s Qantas Airways (QAN.AX) announced on Saturday that it was rerouting flights between Perth and London. In order to avoid Iran’s airspace, the route will also include a fuel stop in Singapore.
Taiwan’s China Airlines (2610.TW) said in a statement to it “continues to pay attention to the situation as it develops and plans the most appropriate routes in accordance with the recommendations of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency”.
Etihad Airways, which does not fly to Iran, said it “continuously monitors security and airspace updates, safety is always our highest priority and we would never operate a flight unless it was safe to do so.”
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