Singapore Airlines, British Airways and Germany’s Lufthansa Group have increased their flights over Afghanistan, after years of largely avoiding it, but the conflict in the Middle East has now made it a relatively safe option.
Airlines virtually stopped flying through Afghanistan, which lies on key routes between Asia and Europe, three years ago when the Taliban took power and air traffic control services were halted.
More dangerous
Those services have yet to resume, but airlines consider the airspace between Iran and Israel to be more dangerous than Afghan airspace. Several airlines have begun flying over Iran and the Middle East after Russian airspace was closed to most Western carriers when the Ukraine war broke out in 2022.
“As conflicts escalate, the calculus around what airspace can be used has changed,” said Ian Petchenek, spokesman for flight tracking organisation Flightradar24. “Airlines are looking to minimise risk as much as possible and see flying over Afghanistan as the safest option given the current tensions between Iran and Israel.”
seven proverbs
The number of flights over Afghanistan in the second week of August was more than seven times higher than during the same period last year, according to a Reuters analysis of Flightradar24 data.
The shift began in mid-April, during tit-for-tat missile and drone attacks between Iran and Israel. Flight-tracking data from that time shows Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, British Airways and others starting flying a few flights a day over Afghanistan.
But the sharp increase has come since the killing of Hamas’s political bureau chief and a senior leader in Lebanon’s Hezbollah group in late July, raising fears of a major escalation.
anxiety
Some pilots are worried. “You depend on the analysis of your airline,” said pilot Otjan De Bruyn, president of the European Airline Pilots Association. “Every time I fly there, I don’t like the feeling of flying over a conflict zone where you don’t really know what’s going on.”
Lufthansa Group told Reuters it had decided to resume flights over Afghan airspace from early July.
Data showed that Turkish Airlines, Thai Airways and Air France-KLM Group were among the airlines that increased the number of flights over Afghan airspace since April.
high altitudes
“Based on actual security information, KLM and other airlines are currently flying safely over Afghanistan only on specific routes and at high altitudes,” KLM told Reuters.
British Airways, Thai Airways, Turkish Airlines and Singapore Airlines did not respond to requests for comment.
Aviation safety group OPS said in July that while Afghan airspace has increased without incident, there is no guarantee that crew or passengers will be safe if an aircraft is forced to land.
air traffic control
In the absence of air traffic control, pilots crossing Afghanistan talk to nearby aircraft via radio according to a protocol established by the United Nations’ International Civil Aviation Organization and the Afghan Civil Aviation Authority.
“Extremist groups remain active and may target aviation facilities in a variety of ways,” the European Aviation Safety Agency said in a conflict zone bulletin reissued in July.
There are few international rules defining safe airspace, and air safety decisions are largely left to the discretion of each company.
Direct route saves time and fuel
If no airline can fly through Russia, Ukraine or Iran, the route over central Afghanistan provides a direct route from Europe to South Asia.
“This route saved us a fair amount of time and fuel,” a pilot who flew from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur via central Afghanistan in July was quoted as saying in an OBS report.