The move by SIA to reroute its flights to avoid Iranian airspace mirrored those made by other airlines, including German airline Lufthansa and its subsidiary Austrian Airlines.
On Friday, Lufthansa said that its planes would no longer use Iranian airspace as it extended a suspension on flights to and from Iran’s capital.
According to Flightradar24, Lufthansa flight LH779 from Singapore to Frankfurt took a southerly route on Tuesday, passing over Oman, Saudi Arabia and Egypt before heading out over the Mediterranean Sea and then Türkiye. It arrived after 13 hours and 36 minutes, exceeding the average flight time for the service by about an hour.
LH779 flights last week flew over Pakistan and Iran.
Australian airline Qantas also said on Saturday that it will redirect its long-haul flights between Perth and London to avoid Iran’s airspace.
Flight Global’s Asia managing editor Greg Waldron told CNA that “virtually all airlines operating through Middle Eastern airspace to Singapore will be highly wary of Iranian airspace, given the potential for military conflict in the region”.
“Other countries in the region, however, appear to have opened their airspace, which helps facilitate traffic to Europe,” he said.
Mr Waldron added that “events in the Middle East have made a challenging air travel situation even more so”.
“At a time when the industry is focusing on environmental issues, flying alternative routes burns more fuel and increases emissions,” he said. “Moreover, airlines in some cases will have to tweak schedules and connections.”
The skies over Iran are not empty though.
Turkish Airlines has continued to use Iranian airspace, with its TK54 service flying over Iran on its way from Istanbul to Singapore on Tuesday.
Other major airlines continuing to operate in Iranian airspace include Emirates and Qatar Airways.
