Global airlines divert routes due to...

Singapore Airlines among carriers reducing flights through Iranian airspace

Global airlines are actively avoiding Iranian and Lebanese airspace and cancelling flights to the region as concerns grow over an escalation of tensions in the Middle East, prompted by the death of senior members of Hamas and Hezbollah.

Singapore Airlines stopped flying through Iranian airspace early on Friday morning, opting to choose alternative routes for passenger and crew safety.

Taiwan’s EVA Air and China Airlines also appeared to be avoiding Iran airspace for flights to Amsterdam on Friday which previously had flown over Iran, Flightradar24 data showed.

In a bulletin, OpsGroup, a membership-based organisation that shares flight risk information, advised traffic between Asia and Europe to avoid Iranian and Iraqi airspace, a day after sources told Reuters that top Iranian officials were to meet representatives of Iran’s regional allies from Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen to discuss potential retaliation.

Many airlines, including those out of the US and Europe, already avoid flying over Iran, especially since the reciprocal missile and drone attacks in April between Iran and Israel.

Flightradar24 showed that Singapore Airlines flight to London Heathrow early on Friday went north of Iran through Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan rather than crossing through Iran as it did the day before.

However, on Friday, a significant number of airlines were still flying over Iran, including UAE carriers Etihad, Emirates and Flydubai, as well as Qatar Airways and Turkish Airlines.

Over the past few days, Air India, Germany’s Lufthansa Group, US carriers United Airlines and Delta Air, and Italy’s ITA Airways suspended flights to Tel Aviv.

Airlines have also been cancelling and delaying flights to the Lebanese capital, Beirut, after a strike in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Canada on Thursday issued a notice to Canadian aircraft to avoid Lebanese airspace for one month due to the risk to aviation from military activity.

Britain has advised pilots of potential risks from anti-aircraft weaponry and military activity in Lebanon’s airspace for the past month.

Should an all-out war break out in the Middle East, OpsGroup said civil aviation will likely face the risk of drones and missiles crossing airways, as well as the increased risk of GPS spoofing - a growing phenomenon around Lebanon and Israel in which militaries and other actors broadcast signals that trick a plane’s GPS system into thinking it is somewhere it is not.

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