Iran closes western, central airspace to intl. overflights

Iran’s transportation ministry has announced that the country’s western and central airspace will be closed to all flights just days after it allowed international transit flights to use the skies over those regions.

News ID: ۲۰۰۱۵۴۹

07 July 2025

The spokesman of the Iranian Roads and Urban Development Ministry or the transportation ministry in short Majid Akhavan said on Wednesday that the decision to close the airspace had been made by a coordination committee of Iran’s civil aviation authority while taking into account security and safety issues.

“... the country’s central and western airspace was closed again to international overflights, but the eastern half of the country’s airspace is open to domestic, international, and transit flights,” said Akhavan, Press TV reported.

He reiterated that airports in the south, north, and west of Iran, including Mehrabad and Imam Khomeini airports in the capital Tehran, would still remain closed, adding that domestic and international flight cancellations for the area had been extended until Thursday, 14:00 local time.

Iranian authorities opened skies over central and western Iran for international overflights on Saturday, four days after a war with the Israeli regime ended as part of a ceasefire.

The Iranian airspace had been partially opened on June 25, a day after the ceasefire was announced.

That allowed Iran to return tens of thousands of pilgrims remaining in Saudi Arabia since early June, when they finished performing their hajj rituals.

It was not clear why authorities had decided to close Iran’s central and western airspace on Wednesday, although there have been speculations that the Israeli regime may violate the ceasefire and launch renewed attacks on the country.

Israel’s aggression on Iran, which started on June 13, prompted a fierce response from the Iranian armed forces as they targeted various areas in the Israeli-occupied territories with missiles and drones, causing a major disruption to international aviation services in the entire West Asia region.

Iran has warned that its response to any new attack would be much harder than those shown last month./mehr