Iran Air says resuming flights to Europe

Iran Air says it will resume flights to Europe, lifting a two-day suspension apparently linked to a ban on the carrier’s planes entering European airspace.

“All flights will be resumed except to Vienna, Stockholm and Gothenburg, which have stopped flights due to the coronavirus outbreak,” it says in a statement.

The national carrier had suspended flights to Europe on Sunday, citing European “restrictions” imposed for “unknown reasons,” without mentioning the novel coronavirus epidemic.

The announcement comes as Iran’s health ministry reported 54 new deaths from COVID-19, the highest toll within 24 hours since the start of the outbreak in the country.

According to several specialized sites, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) on February banned some Iran Air aircraft from European airspace.

The ban covered an Airbus A321-200 and two Airbus A330-200 planes that had not undergone necessary software upgrades for authorization to fly in Europe.

The flight resumption announcement comes after talks by the Iran Civil Aviation Organisation and the foreign ministry with European officials, Iran Air’s statement said.

The carrier, whose fleet was hit by US sanctions reimposed after Washington quit a nuclear deal with Iran, operates flights to multiple European destinations including Paris, London, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Frankfurt, Vienna and Rome.

The novel coronavirus outbreak in Iran is one of the deadliest outside of China and has so far killed 291 people and infected more than 8,000.

— AFP