The Spanish Government has revoked Mahan Air's landing rights as the US Government continues to ramp up efforts to further isolate Iran and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in particular.
Sources in the Spanish civil aviation authority (Dirección General de Aviación Civil - DGAC) told La Vanguardia newspaper that in the wake of the revocation, Mahan Air had been forced to terminate its Barcelona El Prat service from March 23. Italy revoked Mahan Air's rights in December last year again under pressure from Washington.
With the loss of Spain, Mahan Air no longer serves the European Union although in terms of geographical Europe, notwithstanding COVID-19 route suspensions, it has served Istanbul Airport in Turkey, Moscow Vnukovo and St. Petersburg in Russia, and had planned to resume Belgrade Nikola Tesla flights this month.
Vanguardia's sources, however, denied claims that the suspension had been linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has ravaged both Iran and Spain, after Germany ordered IranAir (IR, Tehran Mehrabad) to suspend its flights to the country - Cologne/Bonn, Frankfurt International, and Hamburg Helmut Schmidt - in March.
“The new Infection Protection Act now makes it possible: flights from Iran to Germany are prohibited with immediate effect," German Health Minister Jens Spahn tweeted in early April. “We are placing strict restrictions on the epidemic in Germany – we cannot allow flights from this high-risk area given actual events in Iran are very non-transparent.”
