Foreign Airlines Keen to Fly over Iran

“Multiple countries have made requests for using Iran’s airspace, and we are now reviewing the demands,” Ebrahim Shoushtari, an official with Iranian Airports Holding Company told the Tasnim News Agency.

He noted that the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) have particularly called for an increase in the number of its flights over Iran’s sky in order to avoid the Iraqi airspace.

The growing enthusiasm for using flight routes over Iran follows concerns about a potential threat for the carriers flying through Iraq as the country is still reeling from ISIL terrorists' insurgency.

After Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down earlier this month by a ground-to-air-missile in eastern Ukraine, airlines around the world have been rethinking flight routes to avoid airspace over countries facing conflicts.

The US Federal Aviation Administration has recently prohibited the US airlines from flying over Iraq below 30,000 feet.

The agency, which had previously restricted airlines from flying below 20,000, issued the new requirement because of "the potentially hazardous situation created by the armed conflict in Iraq."

Some airlines have already opted to avoid Iraqi airspace. European aviation safety regulators on Friday issued their own nonbinding safety bulletin on the Arab country.

Emirates Airline, the world’s largest by international traffic, said it is reviewing the situation.

Airlines generally operate along two trunk routes in eastern Iraq as they travel between Europe and the Persian Gulf hubs in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha.