Air India Flights Temporarily Avoid Iranian Airspace

In this image obtained from Flightradar, an Air India flight which flew from New Delhi to London on April 13, is shown avoiding Iranian airspace. (Image: Flightradar)

Air India flights are avoiding Iranian airspace as a precautionary measure as tensions rise in West Asia following Iranian threat of reprisals for the alleged Israeli strike on Iran’s embassy in Syrian capital Damascus earlier this month.

An Air India flight flying from New Delhi to London this morning took a longer route to avoid the Iranian airspace, according to Flightradar.

Air India joins Lufthansa and Qantas to avoid Iran’s airspace amid soaring tensions in the region. Australian carrier Qantas said on Saturday it would redirect its long-haul flights between Perth and London to avoid Iran’s airspace.

“We’ll reach out to customers directly if there’s any change to their booking,” the spokesperson for Qantas said.

German carrier Lufthansa and its subsidiary Austrian Airlines have also redirected their flights and extended a suspension on flights to and from Tehran after Iran threatened Israel with reprisals and US officials told news agencies that an attack on Israel is imminent.

“Due to the current situation, Lufthansa is suspending its flights to and from Tehran up to and including Thursday, 18 April. The airline is also no longer using Iranian airspace,” Lufthansa spokesperson said Friday.

The US on Friday maintained that Iranian threat to Israel remains high and its President, Joe Biden, asked arch-foe Tehran to refrain from attacking its strongest ally in the region.

He said he expects Iran to strike in the short term in retaliation for a strike in Syria.

“I don’t want to get into secure information but my expectation is sooner than later,” Biden told reporters after an event.

“We are devoted to the defence of Israel, we will support Israel, we will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said.

The air strike that struck Iran’s consulate building in the Syrian capital on April 1 killed 16 people, including seven members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.

The most senior figure killed was Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander in the Quds Force, which runs Iran’s foreign military operations.

Iran and Syria have blamed the attack on Israel, which has not confirmed its involvement but is widely considered to be responsible — including by its allies.

(with inputs from CNN-News18)