The US Transportation Department has fined UAE flag carrier Emirates $400,000 for flights that went through Iranian airspace amid a period of heightened political tensions between the US and Iran last year.
The fine has been served on the basis that Emirates, which has a codeshare agreement with New York-based airline JetBlue Airways, flew through the airspace at a time when the US had implemented a flight ban over the territory.
The US Federal Aviation Administration imposed the ban following an incident that saw Iranian authorities shoot down an American surveillance drone over the Gulf of Oman.
The FAA cited rising political tensions, and the risk that American civilian planes in the area could be wrongly identified as military planes, as its reasons for implementing the ban.
In a consent order, Emirates said the issue was a result of an “inadvertent oversight”, and that it does not believe the violation deserves enforcement action but agreed to the fine to settle the matter.
Emirates will need to pay $200,000 of the fine within 120 days, while the other half of the fine will be waived, so long as Emirates avoids any similar violations for one year.
According to Emirates, it suspended all flights through Iranian airspace following the FAA order, bar its twice-daily service to Tehran, done so “at a significant cost to Emirates”.
Emirates also noted in a statement that the flight restrictions apply only on flights where it “transported passengers ticketed under a US air carrier’s designator code”.
As such, the airline intended to remove the JetBlue code from any future flights to and from the US via Iranian airspace, however unfortunately the code was mistakenly still present.
The incidents reportedly took place over 19 days in July 2019, before the mistake was rectified.
Emirates said the error has now been rectified and policy changes implemented to avoid the same mistake being made in the future.
The US Transportation Department said that it took Emirates’ regulatory violations very seriously, and that the imposed fine “establishes a strong deterrent against future similar unlawful practices by Emirates and other carriers”.
Similarly, Emirates said it “takes its regulatory compliance responsibilities extremely seriously”.
