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| Iraq | |
| Emirates 're-routes flights' to avoid Iraqi airspace | |
| 2014-07-29 | |
| Emirates airlines, one of the world's biggest carriers, will stop flying over Iraq after concerns about the missile threat posed by Islamist militants, The Times reported on Monday. Tim Clark, president of Emirates, said he believed other airlines would follow, as the industry began to review assessing the risk of flying over conflict areas after the Malaysia Airlines disaster in Ukraine. Flight MH17 was reportedly shot down by pro-Russian separatists using a surface-to-air missile, Al Arabiya reported. "The horrors that this created was a kick in the solar plexus for all of us," Clark said. "Nevertheless having got through it we must take stock and deal with it." By the end of the year airlines will have a system through which they can share information on troubled flight routes, Clark said. Political sensitivities between governments should not bar input from government intelligence agencies about what airspace is considered risky, the British president of the Dubai-based airline said. "This is a political animal but . . . the fact of the matter is MH17 changed everything, and that was very nearly in European airspace," Clark told The Times. "We cannot continue to say, 'Well it's a political thing'. We have to do something. We have to take the bull by the horns." The Times reported that the United States was urgently investigating the possibility of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria fighters in northern Iraq acquiring missiles stockpiles from neighboring Syria capable of shooting down a civilian aircraft at 30,000ft or higher.
Clark said that he was "not comfortable" with the situation. More than 50 flights travel from and to British airports cross Iraqi airspace, most of which are operated by Emirates. Hundreds of Emirates flights en-route to and from major European airports received instructions to re-route flights that use Iraqi airspace daily. The changes will be implemented over the next week to ten days. "We can't do it all at once because we have got an awful lot going through it, but yes we will be doing that," Clark explained. Alternative routes being considered by the airline would take aircraft across Saudi Arabia and the Red Sea, over Cairo and finally into European airspace, adding add up to 45 minutes to flight times. Flying over Iran is another alternative being explored. | |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #2 So, that cargo flight loaded with Manpads concerns you now, does it? (It's not that. It's my cousin Achmed is up there now, and I know he's crazy.) |
| Posted by: ed in texas 2014-07-29 07:48 |
| #1 I wonder about Malaysian airlines over Iraq. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2014-07-29 03:28 |