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Airlines Worldwide React to the U.S. Ban on Iranian Airspace
[Fortune] Early Friday morning, the Federal Aviation Administration banned all U.S.-registered aircraft from flying over Iranian airspace, and airlines worldwide are following the guidance.The FAA warned of a "potential for miscalculation or misidentification" in the region after an Iranian surface-to-air missile on Thursday brought down an unmanned U.S. drone with a wingspan larger than a Boeing 737 jetliner. Iran said the drone "violated" its territorial airspace, while the U.S. called the missile fire "an unprovoked attack" in international airspace over the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf. There are "heightened military activities and increased political tensions in the region, which present an inadvertent risk to U.S. civil aviation operations and potential for miscalculation or misidentification," the FAA said. The Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman are crucial areas for international air travel, and many global airlines are following the U.S. safety advice. Lufthansa, Germany’s largest airline, said it had been avoiding the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman since Thursday, but that it would continue to operate its flights to Tehran. Dutch carrier KLM also said it would avoid the strait, calling the move a "precautionary measure," according to the Associated Press. Posted by: Besoeker 2019-06-22 |
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