Royal Jordanian (RJ, Amman Queen Alia) has announced it suspended services between Amman Queen Alia and Baghdad effective January 3, 2020, until further notice due to the ongoing tensions in Iraq.
The Jordanian carrier operated the route 18x weekly using a variety of equipment, including E175s, E195, A319-100s, A320-200s, and A321-200s. Royal Jordanian said that its flights to four other destinations in Iraq - Basrah in the south, Najaf in the centre, and Erbil and Sulaymaniyah in the Kurdish north - will continue for the time being.
Meanwhile, Gulf Air (GF, Bahrain International) announced it stopped all flights to Iraq as of January 3 "due to safety and security issues". The Bahraini carrier operated from Bahrain International 6x weekly to Baghdad and daily to Najaf, the ch-aviation schedules module shows.
Kuwait Airways (KU, Kuwait) also suspended flights to Najaf "for about four weeks in coordination with the concerned government authorities, due to the security status quo in Iraq".
The security situation in Iraq worsened due to the crisis between the US and Iran following a US drone strike which killed Iranian general Qassem Soleimani near Baghdad airport. Kuwait, Bahrain, and Jordan are all close allies of the United States and host US military bases.
As of January 6, the three largest foreign carriers by capacity according to ch-aviation capacities, Turkish Airlines (TK, Istanbul Airport), Emirates (EK, Dubai International), and Qatar Airways (QR, Doha Hamad International), all continue to operate from/to Baghdad.
Meanwhile, in India, the government asked airlines to consider avoiding Iranian airspace when possible. However, an Air India (AI, Delhi International) official said that for the time being, the flag carrier did not plan to bypass Iran. The majority of Europe-bound Air India flights cross Iranian airspace.
In turn, LOT Polish Airlines (LO, Warsaw Chopin) said it will avoid Iranian airspace while operating scheduled services from Warsaw Chopin to Singapore Changi, Delhi International, and Colombo International, as well as on charter routes to Goa Dabolim and Bangkok Suvarnabhumi.
