Following a flight ban that was issued last week by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for flights in Iranian airspace, United Airlines has canceled service for two of its India flights: between New Jersey’s Newark International Airport and Mumbai, and between Newark and Delhi, until September 1.
The FAA has prohibited flights in Iranian airspace as well as above the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman until further notice.
The ban is “due to heightened military activities and increased political tensions in the region, which present an inadvertent risk to U.S. civil aviation operations,” the agency stated. It added that said risk was demonstrated when an unmanned aircraft (which has been widely reported to have been a U.S. surveillance drone) was shot down on Thursday, June 20, while it was operating above the Gulf of Oman. The precise location of the strike has been disputed by Iran and the U.S.
In a statement emailed to AFAR, United said it is contacting impacted customers to update them about the canceled flights between New Jersey and India. The carrier said it intends to help affected passengers make other travel arrangements, including the option to rebook on other airlines or obtain a full refund.
“We will remain in close contact with relevant government authorities throughout the suspension in order to provide our customers with the latest updates,” United stated.
British Airways and Lufthansa both said on Friday that they would adhere to the FAA’s guidance to avoid parts of Iranian airspace and that their flights would continue to operate but along alternate routes, Reuters reported.
KLM, the Dutch subsidiary of Air France–KLM, stated it would also avoid flying over parts of Iran as a precautionary measure, a KLM spokesperson told the New York Times on Friday.
American Airlines noted in a statement to AFAR that it does not serve that region, and none of its flights transit that airspace—the furthest east American flies from the United States is Athens, and the furthest west it flies is Hong Kong.
Delta Air Lines does not fly to or over that region either.
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