Airline pilots, crews and security experts are raising concerns about flight paths over the Middle East as political tensions grow – and many claim they are being ignored, according to a report.
Unions representing airline pilots and crews in Europe have sent letters to major air carriers and agencies – including Wizz Air, Ryanair, airBaltic, the European Commission and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) – decrying the hazardous flight conditions on some of their Middle East routes, according to a Reuters report.
“No one should be forced to work in such a hazardous environment and no commercial interests should outweigh the safety and well-being of those on board,” one letter addressed to EASA and the European Commission, dated Aug. 26, read.
Other letters called for pilots to have the ability to refuse flying a dangerous route, and for airlines to be more transparent about their Middle East routes.
But airlines said their flight routes meet industrywide safety standards, and allowing pilots to refuse flights would cause chaos.
Some airlines, like Lufthansa and KLM, no longer fly over Iran. But many air carriers, including Etihad, flydubai, Aeroflot and Wizz Air, had flights crossing over the country as recently as Dec. 2, according to FlightRadar24 data.
Lufthansa and KLM also allow crew members to opt-out of routes they feel are not safe, but carriers like airBaltic, Wizz Air and Ryanair don’t allow employees to opt-out. Wizz and airBaltic did not immediately respond to The Post’s requests for comment.
“If we start a right of refusal, then where do we stop? [When] the next person feels unhappy overflying Iraqi airspace because there’s tension there?” airBaltic CEO Martin Gauss told Reuters.
The airline meets an international safety standard and does not need new policies, Gauss said.
“Our aircraft and crews will only fly in airspace that has been deemed safe and we would never take any risks in this respect,” Wizz Air said in a statement.
Ryanair — which flew to Jordan and Israel until September — said it makes its security calls based on EASA guidance.
“If EASA says it’s safe, then, frankly, thank you, we’re not interested in what the unions or some pilot think,” Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary told Reuters.
Ryanair told The Post its Middle Eastern operations consist of 14 weekly flights to Amman, Jordan, where several other European carriers — including Lufthansa, Air France, Austrian, Swiss, Aegean and LOT — currently operate.
EASA said it has been speaking with pilots and various airlines on flight safety in recent months.
The agency spoke out against airlines who are disciplining staff members for raising safety concerns.
For some pilots and crew members, these airlines’ reassurances fell flat.
“The fact that Wizz Air sends emails asserting that it’s safe is irrelevant to commercial employees,” a letter dated Aug. 12 from a Romanian flight crew union to Diarmuid O’Conhaile, Wizz’s chief operating officer, read. “Flights into these conflict areas, even if they are rescue missions, should be carried out by military personnel and aircraft, not by commercial crews.”
In late September, a longtime pilot at Wizz Air had concerns about flying over Iraq at night, which he flagged to his employer, the pilot told Reuters.
But Wizz — without giving any explanation — told him he had to fly the route, the pilot said.
Days later, Iraq closed its airspace, blocking any flight paths overhead, after Iran fired at least 180 missiles into Israel on Oct. 1.
A pilot and a cabin crew member, meanwhile, told Reuters they received warnings from their employers after they called out sick or refused to fly Middle Eastern routes.
Pilots and flight safety experts said the main concern is the firing of missiles in the Middle East, which could accidentally take down a commercial flight – like the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014 and Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 in Tehran, Iran in 2020.
Both of the planes crashed after being struck by missiles.
And tensions have only been heating up in Middle Eastern conflict zones, where 165 missiles were launched in November – compared to just 33 in the same month last year, according to Osprey Flight Solutions data.
Airspace restrictions can only be enforced if a country chooses to shut it down, though carriers can choose to have flights pass around the region – but this is significantly more costly.
To fly a commercial plane from Singapore to London and reroute through Afghanistan and Central Asia instead of through the Middle East would cost nearly $5,000 in overflight fees, according to flight plans obtained by Reuters.
With Post wires
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