Tehran: Following Israel's large-scale strikes on Iranian territory early Friday, major international airlines have begun rerouting or grounding flights across the Middle East, as escalating tensions render key air corridors unsafe for civil aviation.
Flight tracking data from Flightradar24 showed a significant clearing of commercial aircraft from the skies over Israel, Iran, and Iraq, shortly after Israel initiated what it described as a sustained military campaign targeting Iran’s nuclear infrastructure and missile production facilities. The region's rapidly evolving security situation has sent global airlines scrambling to minimize risks to passengers and crew.
As hostilities intensify, Iran and Iraq have both closed their airspace until further notice. Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport was also shut down amid fears of incoming Iranian retaliatory attacks. El Al, Israel’s national carrier, announced an immediate halt to all inbound and outbound flights.
Several carriers—including Emirates, Lufthansa, and Air India—had aircraft over Iranian airspace when news of the attack broke. Though these airlines have not yet issued public statements, flight data revealed several diversions in real time. For instance, an Emirates flight from Manchester to Dubai was rerouted to Istanbul, while a flydubai service from Belgrade was redirected to Yerevan, Armenia.
Flydubai, a regional budget airline, has confirmed it has suspended operations to Amman, Beirut, Damascus, Iran, and Israel, while other services have been either cancelled, redirected, or forced to return to their departure points.
The closure of Iraqi airspace has caused a significant bottleneck, as the eastern Iraqi corridor, located near the Iranian border, serves as one of the busiest aviation passageways for flights linking Europe, the Gulf, and Asia. Airlines are now diverting traffic through Central Asia and Saudi Arabia, according to live tracking data.
The aviation risk-monitoring group Safe Airspace, run by OPSGROUP, advised airlines to exercise "extreme caution" in the region, calling the situation volatile and still developing. The incident underscores the growing complexity and danger in global aviation, especially over active or emerging conflict zones.
Airspace instability is becoming an increasing threat to airline safety and profitability. Since 2001, six commercial aircraft have been unintentionally shot down, and three others narrowly escaped similar fates, according to Osprey Flight Solutions. The legacy of such tragedies—from the downing of Malaysia Airlines MH17 over Ukraine in 2014, to PS752 shot down in Tehran in 2020—remains fresh in aviation memory.
As tensions ripple across the region, international aviation is once again navigating the fog of war, with civilian aircraft caught in the crosswinds of military escalation.