Lisa Barrington
Flightradar24 data shows that after Israel launched an attack on Iranian targets, Seoul (Reuters) airlines cleared space in the airspace of Israel, Iran and Iraq, with carriers scrambling to transfer and cancel flights to ensure the safety of passengers and crew.
Proliferation conflict zones around the world are becoming increasingly important for airline operations and profitability, and more about safety issues.
According to Aviation Risk Consultancy Osprey Flight Solutions, six commercial aircraft were accidentally shot down, and nearly three have been missed since 2001.
Israel said on Friday it targets Iran’s nuclear facilities, ballistic missile plants and military commanders, and at the time of warning, it will be a long-term operation to prevent Tehran from building atomic weapons.
Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv was closed until further notice, and Israel’s air defense forces were on high alert for Iran’s retaliatory strike.
Israeli flag carrier El al Airlines said it has suspended flights to and from Israel.
According to state media reports, Iran’s airspace has been closed until further notice.
With reports on Iran’s strike, airlines including the Emirates of Dubai, Lufthansa and Air India have made numerous commercial flights, flying over Iran.
Emirates, Lufthansa and Air India did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Iraq closed airspace early on Friday and suspended all traffic at the airport, Iraqi state media reported.
Near the eastern Iraq border with Iran, which contains one of the world’s busiest aviation corridors, there are dozens of flights between Europe and the Gulf, many of which are routes from Asia to Europe.
Flight tracking data shows that flights are shifting steadily in Central Asia or Saudi Arabia.
“This is still happening – operators should be more cautious at this time,” said Safe Firass, a website run by OPSGroup.
Several flights were transferred earlier on Friday due to Dubai land. Emirates flights from Manchester to Dubai to Istanbul and flights from Belgrade to Yerevan, Armenia to Flydubai.
Low-cost airline Flydubai said it has suspended flights to Amman, Beirut, Damascus, Iran and Israel, with many other flights being cancelled, redirected or returned to its departure airport.
Since October 2023, Israel-Palestine conflict in the Middle East has caused commercial aviation to share the sky with brief obstacles to drones and missiles on major flight paths, some of which are reportedly close enough for both pilots and passengers to see.
Last year, planes were shot down by weapons in Kazakhstan and Sudan. These events were a high-profile landing on the Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine in 2014 and the PS752 flight of Ukraine International Airlines on its way from Tehran in 2020.
(Reported by Lisa Barrington; Edited by Jamie Freed)
