Jan 24 (Reuters) – Airlines have been rerouting and cancelling some flights across the Middle East as tensions ramp up between Iran and the United States, with President Donald Trump saying on Thursday the U.S. had an “armada” heading towards Iran.
A senior Iranian official said on Friday Iran will treat any attack “as an all-out war against us”, ahead of the arrival of a U.S. military aircraft carrier strike group and other assets in the Middle East in the coming days.
The European Union’s aviation regulator recommended on January 16 that its airlines stay out of Iran’s airspace as tensions flared over Tehran’s deadly crackdown on protests and U.S. threats of intervention.
KLM
Airline KLM will avoid flying over large parts of the Middle East until further notice due to rising tensions there, the Dutch arm of airline group Air France KLM said on January 24.
“As a precaution, given the geopolitical situation, KLM will not fly through the airspace of Iran, Iraq and Israel and will not fly over several countries in the Gulf region,” a KLM spokesperson said.
AIR FRANCE
Air France resumed its service to Dubai on January 24 after suspending it a day before, saying it was following the situation in the Middle East “in real time”.
“Air France continuously monitors the geopolitical situation of the territories served and overflown by its aircraft,” it said in a statement.
LUFTHANSA
Lufthansa said on January 14 it would bypass Iranian and Iraqi airspace until further notice, and would only operate day flights to Tel Aviv and Amman between January 14 and January 19.
Some flights could be cancelled as a result of these actions, it added in a statement that day.
BRITISH AIRWAYS
British Airways temporarily suspended flights to Bahrain on January 16 as a precautionary measure, saying it “continue(d) to keep the situation in the region under close review”.
Flights to Bahrain were once again available on the BA website on January 24, and a spokesperson for the airline said all its flights were going ahead as scheduled.
FINNAIR
Finnair said in a statement on January 16 it had stopped flying through Iraqi airspace, travelling to Doha and Dubai over Saudi Arabia instead.
The carrier had already been avoiding Iranian, Syrian and Israeli airspace for security reasons.
WIZZ AIR
A Wizz Air spokesperson said in January that the company avoided Iraqi and Iranian airspace.
“Therefore some westbound flights from Dubai and Abu Dhabi airports will have to make (refuelling and crew change) stops in Larnaca, Cyprus or Thessaloniki, Greece,” the representative said.
(Compiled by Jan Harvey; Additional reporting by Leigh Thomas in Paris and Michael Holden in London; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
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