Australian flag carrier Qantas has extended the reroute of its Perth to London Heathrow flight until April 28 at the earliest as Middle East tensions remain on tenterhooks.
Qantas is no longer operating a non-stop flight from Perth to London and is instead rerouting the flight with a short stopover in Singapore in order to avoid overflying Iranian airspace.
The decision to initially reroute the flight came just a day before Iran launched a massive drone and missile attack on Israel but has been extended because of uncertainty of how the situation might escalate.
On Thursday night, Israel is believed to have launched a retaliatory missile attack on Iran, going against reports that Benjamin Netanyahu was pushing back a response until after the Passover holiday.
In response to Israel’s missile attack, Iran closed its airspace for a short period, but it has now reopened, and commercial airlines are currently overflying Iran.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Qantas said: “We’re temporarily adjusting the flight paths for our flights between Perth and London due to the situation in parts of the Middle East.”
A spokesperson added: “We’ll reach out to customers directly if there’s any change to their booking.”
The flight from Perth to London is now operating as QF209, while the return flight QF10 is still operating non-stop to Perth due to prevailing winds.
