UAE carriers will continue to fly over Iranian airspace

The UAE’s two leading airlines have decided not to follow Cathay Pacific’s lead and will continue to fly over Iranian airspace, despite concerns over Russian air strikes on Syrian targets.

Russia has been firing long-range missiles at Syrian targets from warships in the Caspian Sea. The European Aviation Safety Agency issued a warning that the missiles “crossed airspace in Iran and Iraq, below flight routes used by commercial aeroplanes”.

On Wednesday, Hong Kong carrier Cathay Pacific said it was suspending flights over Iran and the Caspian.

An Etihad spokesman said changes were introduced last week, but for one day only.

“Late in the afternoon of October 7, Etihad Airways received information from open source media that a Russian warship based in the Caspian Sea had fired 26 cruise missiles towards Syria,” the airline said. “Given the immediacy and the lack of information of the event, Etihad Airways and its equity partner airlines proactively took the decision to reroute its flights to/from Europe [including Moscow] and North America to avoid the affected zone for 24 hours.

“Following a full-risk assessment of the situation, which included gathering intelligence from several key sources, it was determined it was safe to resume normal operations through the air space.”

Emirates said it was “closely monitoring the situation in collaboration with international agencies”.