Etihad Airways (EY, Abu Dhabi International) has joined Air Arabia (G9, Sharjah), Qatar Airways (QR, Doha Hamad International), Emirates (EK, Dubai International), flydubai (FZ, Dubai International), Transavia Airlines (HV, Amsterdam Schiphol), EgyptAir (MS, Cairo International) and Germania (Berlin Schönefeld) in suspending its Erbil operations following US air-strikes against Islamic State (IS) militants late last week. Austrian Airlines (OS, Vienna) and Lufthansa (LH, Frankfurt International) have also indefinitely suspended their operations to the beleaguered northern Iraqi city.

Following an announcement by American president Barack Obama authorizing the use of force against the Islamic State to help protect Iraqi minority groups as well as US strategic interests, United States Air Force (MC, Washington National) F-18s last week dropped 500-pound laser-guided bombs on an IS mobile artillery unit positioned near Erbil.

The directive lead the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to amend a NOTAM forbidding US carriers from flying over Iraq below 30,000 feet, to banning them from transiting Iraqi airspace outright.

"The Federal Aviation Administration issued a new Notice-To-Airmen (NOTAM) restricting US operators from flying in the airspace above Iraq due to the hazardous situation created by the armed conflict. The new NOTAM supersedes previous FAA guidance for this airspace," it said.