The Turkish Transport and Infrastructure Ministry has reimposed a ban on all flights to and from Iran and Afghanistan due to a rising number of COVID-19 cases in both countries, Reuters has reported.

The suspensions took effect on July 18, 2020, and are valid indefinitely.

According to the ch-aviation schedules module and Flightradar24 ADS-B data, Mahan Air (W5, Tehran Mehrabad) was the only airline operating scheduled flights between Tehran Imam Khomeini and Istanbul Airport prior to the suspension. All other flights between the two countries operated by Mahan Air or IranAir (IR, Tehran Mehrabad) had already been suspended earlier. Turkish Airlines (TK, Istanbul Airport) and Pegasus Airlines (PC, Istanbul Sabiha Gökcen) planned to resume flights to Iran on August 1, although this is now unlikely.

In terms of traffic from Afghanistan, Kam Air (RQ, Kabul) operated services from Kabul to Istanbul and Ankara Esenboga, while Turkish Airlines resumed its services to Kabul on June 24, stopped them again in early July, and restarted yet again on July 16. The Turkish airline also restarted flights to Mazar i Sharif but operated only a single flight on July 17 before the new suspension.