WASHINGTON –
The U.S. Department of Transportation said Friday it had fined Air Canada $250,000 for operating flights in banned Iraqi airspace in 2022 and 2023.
The authority was responsible because these flights carried the United Airlines identifier code. The violations occurred on numerous flights between the United Arab Emirates and Toronto in airspace banned from U.S. operators by the Federal Aviation Administration.
When banning flights, the FAA cited the “complex security environment” that prevails over Iraq. Air Canada must pay $125,000 of the penalty and will owe an additional $125,000 if it violates the order again within a year. Air Canada stopped codesharing with United on the route in January 2023.
Air Canada said the “incidents were brief, unplanned and unintended and were due to multiple factors, including air traffic control limitations and a change to a larger aircraft that required more time to reach sufficient altitude.” Safety is also not at risk.” The airline added that it had taken measures to prevent such incidents from happening again.
Emirates was fined $1.5 million by the Transportation Ministry in June for operating flights using JetBlue Airways’ code over Iraqi airspace. It was the second time since 2020 that they had been fined.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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