Flights through Iranian airspace up by 71% y/y in July: Report
A study of recent figures from the Iranian aviation industry shows the number of flights that pass through the country’s airspace has increased significantly months after a plane downing incident caused major global airlines to reroute their flights from Iran.
A Saturday report by Fars news agency showed that the number of overflights through the Iranian airspace in the Persian calendar months ending July 21 had increased by 71 percent compared to the similar period last year.
The surge came some six months after the Iranian military mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian passenger airliner near the capital Tehran.
The incident came hours after Iran fired missiles at an air base in neighboring Iraq that hosted American troops, a move meant to respond to Washington’s assassination of a top Iranian general early in January.
Iran has taken full responsibility for the downing of the Ukrainian plane, which killed 176 people, while trying to assure global airlines that the country provides a safe route for transit.
The increase in number of flights over Iran also comes despite a general slump in the global aviation activity as a result of the spread of the coronavirus disease.
The report by Fars said the number of flights passing through Iran had reached 7,295 in the month to July 21, an increase of nearly 37 percent compared to the previous month.
This comes as Iran has refused to implement a general cut in overflight fees that it charges for airlines using the Iranian airspace.
However, there have been some discounts to offset the losses suffered over the Ukrainian plane incident with aviation authorities rewarding top eight airlines providing transit income as well as those boosting their flights through Iran by 20 percent.
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