The original recommendation — issued on Feb. 28 when the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran — is now valid until March 11.
“All-altitude capable air-defence systems, cruise and ballistic missiles and the use of air assets … make the entire affected airspace vulnerable to spill-over risks, misidentification, miscalculation and failure of interception procedures,” the EASA bulletin said.
That recommendation leaves only a very narrow path for many airlines to fly between Europe and Asia — forcing them along Turkey’s northern Black Sea coast, then over Azerbaijan and the Caspian Sea. European carriers can’t fly over war-torn Ukraine and they’ve also been barred from Russian airspace since Moscow invaded Ukraine four years ago.
However, Turkish, Chinese and other Asian competitors can still overfly Russia, creating growing competition problems for EU carriers.
The Ukraine war closures already forced airline groups such as Lufthansa and Air France-KLM to reroute their long-haul flights to and from Asia — increasing fuel and staffing costs.
Now, even that narrow passage across Azerbaijan is at risk after the country was reportedly targeted by a drone strike near the Iranian border.