US aviation sanctions disrupt Iran flights, push travellers overland | US-Israel battle on Iran News
Tehran, Iran – Travel is changing into more and more troublesome for Iranian civilians as United States sanctions shut home airways out of a lot of the global community’s airspace and cross-border carriers proceed to keep away from the nation.
The US Department of the Treasury designated 27 airways on September 8, overlaying the remaining Iranian carriers that had not beforehand been sanctioned by Washington. Major names like Iran Air and Mahan are amongst these already closely sanctioned, however have continued restricted operations.
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Recent designations have additionally focused people and entities linked to aviation help and procurement within the United Arab Emirates, Turkiye, China, India, the United Kingdom, Malaysia and elsewhere.
Airports and firms that present Iranian-operated aeroplanes with gas, touchdown companies, or ticket gross sales danger secondary US sanctions that would cut them off from the US financial system, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent mentioned on Monday. It is the most recent try to squeeze Iran and drive it to make concessions amid the US-Israel battle on Iran.
Wednesday marked the expiry of a brief wind-down interval permitting nations to cease servicing Iranian carriers, resulting in the cancellation of all however a handful of Iranian flights to Turkiye, UAE and China.
Aviation authorities in a number of neighbouring nations that had continued to permit Iranian airways to make use of their airspace and airport companies would not be offering them, together with Oman, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. In Iraq, Baghdad Airport was declared off-limits to Iranian carriers, however flights to Najaf Airport have been nonetheless working on Wednesday.
Many flights between Iran and main transit hubs in Turkiye and the UAE had already been suspended due to the battle and sanctions. International airways have additionally largely stopped flying to Iran, with Turkish Airlines suspending flights till at the very least March 2027, and Qatar Airways, Emirates, and Lufthansa’s operations additionally suspended.
‘A brand new stage’ of sanctions
Iran-based aviation and transit knowledgeable Mohammadreza Ebrahimpour mentioned years of US sanctions had already pressured Iranian airways to depend on third nations and work with smaller corporations to get gas or companies. Obtaining spare elements wanted to maintain Iran’s ageing plane flying has additionally grow to be more and more troublesome.
But the choice by aviation authorities in neighbouring nations to formally refuse companies to Iranian airways constituted “a brand new stage of sanctions in motion” that would have longer-lasting penalties, he advised Al Jazeera.
Ebrahimpour mentioned the US had additionally successfully prohibited international airlines from flying by Iranian airspace by suspending authorisations for some US-origin plane to fly to Iran and limiting US-linked overflight funds.
“This is a giant blow as a result of funds for overflights have been one of the vital profitable elements of [Iran’s] aviation business, which may act as a help for growing roads and the general business,” Ebrahimpour mentioned, including that Iran earned greater than $300m a yr from this.
Beyond the impact on civilian passengers and the import of some items, the measures may put tens of 1000’s of jobs in danger throughout the aviation sector and associated industries, together with tourism and hospitality.
Ebrahimpour identified that the International Civil Aviation Agency and different organisations have failed to supply any tangible safety to Iran’s aviation business throughout years of sanctions. Iranian authorities, he mentioned, would probably take into account China and Russia among the many few nations doubtlessly in a position to present help.
The two nations have rejected US sanctions in opposition to Iran, though a few of their extra globally linked monetary networks and firms have, at instances, distanced themselves from Iran to keep away from secondary sanctions.
Under stress from all fronts
The flight cancellations have pushed 1000’s of travellers in the direction of land crossings, significantly these with Turkiye and Armenia, the place onward cross-border flights stay out there for Iranians. Heavy congestion has been reported in current days on the Bazargan and Razi border crossings with Turkiye and alongside land routes to the Armenian capital Yerevan.
But on a regular basis passenger journey overland into Azerbaijan stays restricted, with Azerbaijan’s authorities citing inside safety and COVID-19 restrictions. As a outcome, Iranians can’t cross overland into Azerbaijan to catch a flight there.
The Shalamcheh and Chazabeh border crossings with Iraq have been additionally briefly closed earlier this month, leaving travellers stranded, earlier than reopening to passengers on September 13.
For 1000’s of Iranians making an attempt to journey, the flight suspensions imply considerably longer journeys. Some members of the Iranian diaspora have expressed concern on-line that the lingering results of battle and sanctions may doubtlessly forestall them from visiting mother and father and different relations in Iran.
Bus tickets from Iran to Turkiye have reportedly bought for quadruple their regular worth on the black market amid surging demand.
Some of the folks making the journey are younger Iranians who’re making an attempt to take international language tests that are not allowed to be administered inside Iran as a result of sanctions. The exams are sometimes a prerequisite for anybody planning to review, work, or settle overseas.
Iranian teachers have additionally expressed concern about rising isolation from the cross-border educational group. Numerous universities throughout the globe, together with in Norway, Australia, Singapore, Estonia and elsewhere, have in current weeks rejected postgraduate and analysis functions from Iranians because of US training sanctions.
At the identical time, a lot of Iran’s roughly 90 million persons are at present unable to afford cross-border journey – and even home flights – because the nation’s economic conditions worsen.
The Trump administration has portrayed the battle and sanctions as measures directed on the Iranian authorities.
The US Treasury has mentioned its aviation restrictions are meant to disrupt the usage of Iranian industrial aviation for weapons procurement and transportation, together with actions linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). But the designation of whole airways beneath “Operation Economic Outcast”, after almost seven months of battle, has additionally had sweeping penalties for affected civilians.
Iran’s cross-border aviation community was already badly broken previous to the most recent bundle of sanctions. Aviation analytics firm Cirium reported that cross-border capability in August 2026 was 49 % decrease than in August 2025, regardless of a modest restoration from July.
The newest flight cancellations are additionally anticipated to additional disrupt imports by air at a time when the US naval blockade of Iran’s southern ports within the Strait of Hormuz has constrained maritime commerce routes, whereas battle and sanctions have prompted disruptions and delays to highway and rail cargo routes.
Some of Iran’s medical imports enter the nation by air, elevating considerations that the most recent aviation restrictions may place extra stress on an already struggling healthcare sector. A home pharmaceutical firm govt advised Al Jazeera earlier this month that the price of some imported provides, a few of which arrived by air, had risen as a lot as 10-fold because of sanctions, wider financial stress, and battle injury.
Addressing the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian accused the Trump administration of “bullying”.
“They have examined Iran’s resilience, and now they know full properly that Iran can’t be pressured to give up by battle,” Pezeshkian mentioned.
