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Some pilots, crew unions worry about certain Middle

Eastern

flight routes - letters to airlines, regulators

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Airlines differ on allowing crew to refuse unsafe routes

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Passenger rights groups demand transparency on flight

paths over

conflict zones

(Updates Dec. 11 story with further Wizz Air ( WZZAF ) comment)

By Joanna Plucinska and Lisa Barrington

LONDON, Dec 11 (Reuters) - In late September, an

experienced pilot at low-cost European airline Wizz Air ( WZZAF ) felt

anxious after learning his plane would fly over Iraq at night

amid mounting tensions between nearby Iran and Israel.

He decided to query the decision since just a week earlier

the airline had deemed the route unsafe. In response, Wizz Air's ( WZZAF )

flight operations team told him the airway was now

considered secure and he had to fly it, without giving further

explanation, the pilot said.

"I wasn't really happy with it," the pilot, who requested

anonymity from fear he could lose his job, told Reuters. Days

later, Iraq closed its airspace when Iran fired missiles on Oct.

1 at Israel. "It confirmed my suspicion that it wasn't safe."

In response to Reuters' queries, Wizz Air ( WZZAF ) said safety of

crew and passengers was its utmost priority and would not be

compromised "in any circumstances", adding its decisions on

where to fly are based on stringent risk assessments in

collaboration with third party intelligence specialists.

"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 ( WZZAF ) also said in a statement.

The airline said it had conducted a thorough risk

assessment before deciding to fly over Iraqi airspace in

November and followed guidance from the European Commission and

the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), which had

deemed it safe on July 31.

It also said it was rerouting some flights following

EASA recommendations and its own risk assessment review. It did

not give further details on which routes and flights were

affected.

The airline has suspended flights to and from Tel Aviv until

Jan. 14.

Reuters spoke to four pilots, three cabin crew members,

three flight security experts and two airline executives about

growing safety concerns in the European air industry due to

escalating tensions in the Middle East following Hamas' attack

on Israel in October 2023, that prompted the war in Gaza.

The Middle East is a key air corridor for planes heading to

India, South-East Asia and Australia and last year was

criss-crossed daily by 1,400 flights to and from Europe,

Eurocontrol data show.

The safety debate about flying over the region is playing

out in Europe largely because pilots there are protected by

unions, unlike other parts of the world.

Reuters reviewed nine unpublished letters from four European

unions representing pilots and crews that expressed worries

about air safety over Middle Eastern countries. The letters were

sent to Wizz Air ( WZZAF ), Ryanair, airBaltic, the European

Commission and EASA between June and August.

"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," read a letter,

addressed to EASA and the European Commission from Romanian

flight crew union FPU Romania, dated Aug. 26.

In other letters, staff called on airlines to be more

transparent about their decisions on routes and demanded the

right to refuse to fly a dangerous route.

There have been no fatalities or accidents impacting

commercial aviation tied to the escalation of tensions in the

Middle East since the war in Gaza erupted last year.

Air France opened an internal investigation after one of its

commercial planes flew over Iraq on Oct. 1 during Tehran's

missile attack on Israel. On that occasion, airlines scrambled

to divert dozens of planes heading towards the affected areas in

the Middle East.

The ongoing tensions between Israel and Iran and the abrupt

ousting of President Bashar al-Assad by Syrian rebels at the

weekend have raised concerns of further insecurity in the

region.

The use of missiles in the region has revived memories of

the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 over eastern

Ukraine in 2014 and of Ukraine International Airlines flight

PS752 en route from Tehran in 2020.

Being accidentally shot-down in the chaos of war is the top

worry, three pilots and two aviation safety experts told

Reuters, along with the risk of an emergency landing.

While airlines including Lufthansa and KLM

no longer fly over Iran, carriers including Etihad,

flydubai, Aeroflot and Wizz Air ( WZZAF ) were still crossing

the country's airspace as recently as Dec. 2, data from tracking

service FlightRadar24 show.

Some European airlines including Lufthansa and KLM allow

crew to opt-out of routes they don't feel are safe, but others

such as Wizz Air ( WZZAF ), Ryanair and airBaltic don't.

AirBaltic CEO Martin Gauss said his airline meets an

international safety standard that doesn't need to be adjusted.

"If we start a right of refusal, then where do we stop?

the next person feels unhappy overflying Iraqi airspace

because there's tension there?" he told Reuters on Dec. 2 in

response to queries about airBaltic flight safety talks with

unions.

Ryanair, which intermittently flew to Jordan and Israel

until September, said it makes security decisions 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 in October, when asked about staff

security concerns.

EASA said it has been involved in a number of exchanges with

pilots and airlines on route safety in recent months concerning

the Middle East, adding that disciplining staff for raising

safety concerns would run counter to a "just culture" where

employees can voice worries.

INSUFFICIENT REASSURANCES

One Abu Dhabi-based Wizz Air ( WZZAF ) pilot told Reuters he was

comfortable flying over the conflict-torn region as he believes

the industry has a very high safety standard.

Wizz Air ( WZZAF ) said it has a safety, security and operational

compliance committee which assists the board by overseeing

policies and their implementation.

"We always strive to be transparent and to keep our crew

well informed," it said, referring to internal safety reporting

system and regular updates to staff.

For some pilots and crew members working at budget airlines,

the reassurances of the companies are insufficient.

They told Reuters pilots should have more choice in refusing

flights over potentially dangerous airspace and requested more

information about airline security assessments.

"The fact that Wizz Air ( WZZAF ) sends emails asserting that it's

safe is irrelevant to commercial employees," read a letter from

FPU Romania to Chief Operating Officer Diarmuid O'Conghaile,

dated Aug. 12. "Flights into these conflict areas, even if they

are rescue missions, should be carried out by military personnel

and aircraft, not by commercial crews."

Mircea Constantin, a former cabin crew member who represents

FPU Romania, said Wizz Air ( WZZAF ) never gave a formal response to this

letter and similar ones sent earlier this year, but did send

security guidance and updates to staff.

A pilot and a cabin crew member, who declined to be named

for fear of retaliatory action, said they got warnings from

their employers for refusing to fly on Middle Eastern routes or

calling in sick.

CONGESTED SKIES

Last month, 165 missiles were launched in Middle Eastern

conflict zones versus just 33 in November 2023, according to the

latest available data from Osprey Flight Solutions.

But airspace can only be enforcably restricted if a country

chooses to shut it down, as in the case of Ukraine after

Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022.

Several airlines have opted to briefly suspend flights to

places like Israel when tension rises. Lufthansa and British

Airways did so after Iran bombarded Israel on April 13.

But this limits the airspace in use in the already congested

Middle Eastern skies.

Choosing to fly over Central Asia or Egypt and Saudi Arabia

to avoid Middle Eastern hot spots is also more costly as planes

burn more fuel and some countries charge higher overflight fees.

Flying a commercial plane from Singapore to London-Heathrow

through Afghanistan and Central Asia, for instance, cost an

airline $4,760 in overflight fees, about 50% more than a route

through the Middle East, according to two Aug. 31 flight plans

reviewed by Reuters.

Reuters could not name the airline as the flight plans are

not public.

Some private jets are avoiding the most critical areas.

"At the moment, my no-go areas would be the hotspot points:

Libya, Israel, Iran, simply because they're sort of caught up in

it all," said Andy Spencer, a Singapore-based pilot who flies

private jets and who previously worked as an airline pilot.

Spencer, who has two decades of experience and flies through

the Middle East regularly, said that on a recent flight from

Manila to Cuba, he flew from Dubai over Egypt and north through

Malta before refuelling in Morocco to circumvent Libyan and

Israeli airspace.

EASA, regarded by industry experts as the strictest regional

safety regulator, issues public bulletins on how to fly safely

over conflict zones.

But these aren't mandatory and every airline decides where

to travel based on a patchwork of government notices,

third-party security advisors, in-house security teams and

information sharing between carriers, leading to divergent

policies.

Such intelligence is not usually shared with staff.

The opacity has sown fear and mistrust among pilots, cabin

crew and passengers as they question whether their airline has

missed something carriers in other countries are aware of, said

Otjan de Bruijn, a former head of European pilots union the

European Cockpit Association and a pilot for KLM.

"The more information you make available to pilots, the more

informed a decision they can make," said Spencer, who is also an

operations specialist at flight advisory body OPSGROUP, which

offers independent operational advice to the aviation industry.

When Gulf players like Etihad, Emirates or flydubai suddenly

stop flying over Iran or Iraq, the industry sees it as a

reliable indicator of risk, pilots and security sources said, as

these airlines can have access to detailed intelligence from

their governments.

Flydubai told Reuters it operates within airspace and

airways in the region that are approved by Dubai's General Civil

Aviation Authority. Emirates said it continuously monitors all

routings, adjusting as required and would never operate a flight

unless it was safe to do so. Etihad said it only operates

through approved airspace.

Passenger rights groups are also asking for travellers to

receive more information.

"If passengers decline to take flights over conflict zones,

airlines would be disinclined to continue such flights," said

Paul Hudson, the head of U.S.-based passenger group Flyers

Rights. "And passengers who take such flights would do so

informed of the risks."