LONDON/SEOUL –
Singapore Airlines, British Airways and Lufthansa have increased their flights over Afghanistan after largely avoiding it for years. However, the conflict in the Middle East makes it seem like a relatively safe option.
Three years ago, airlines largely stopped flying to Afghanistan, which is on major routes between Asia and Europe, when the Taliban took over and air traffic control was shut down.
Those services have yet to resume, but airlines increasingly see the airspace between Iran and Israel as riskier than Afghan airspace. Many had begun flying via Iran and the Middle East after Russian airspace was closed to most Western airlines when the war in Ukraine began in 2022.
