Oman Air (WY, Muscat) has announced it will henceforth reroute all of its flights around Iraqi airspace as a result of the escalation in the conflict there between militants loyal to the Islamic State (IS) and Iraqi and Kurdish security forces.
“This measure was taken as part of our ongoing review of flight paths between Muscat and Europe, and follows our decisions in April not to overfly the Ukraine, and a year ago not to overfly Syria,” Oman Air’s Chief Executive Officer, Paul Gregorowitsch said. "Geopolitical developments are considered alongside a range of other issues and our forward planning can result in changes some time before they become a statutory requirement.”
The carrier joins a growing list of other international carriers - Kuwait Airways (KU, Kuwait), Etihad Airways (EY, Abu Dhabi International), British Airways (BA, London Heathrow), Lufthansa (LH, Frankfurt International), Austrian Airlines (OS, Vienna), Swiss (LX, Zurich), Turkish Airlines (TK, Istanbul Airport), EgyptAir (MS, Cairo International), Air France (AF, Paris CDG), Emirates (EK, Dubai International), KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (KL, Amsterdam Schiphol), and Virgin Atlantic (VS, London Heathrow) - that have now chosen to re-route their traffic over Iran, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a revised NOTAM last week forbidding American carriers from transiting Iraqi airspace outright.
