AUA continues to fly

Escalation feared: Lufthansa stops flights to Iran

AUA's parent company Lufthansa will not be flying to Iran's capital Tehran until Saturday. The reason is the threat of escalation between Iran and Israel. AUA, on the other hand, is not canceling any flights.

However, the departure of AUA aircraft from Vienna will be postponed by a few hours "in order to minimize the time between landing and take-off in Tehran", an AUA spokeswoman announced on Thursday. "Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines have come to the same safety assessment for the situation on the ground." However, there are labor law reasons for the different handling.

Overnight layovers in Tehran will be suspended until Saturday as a precautionary measure, the spokesperson added. Due to the shorter flight time that Austrian has compared to other airlines, it is possible to fly Vienna-Tehran-Vienna without an overnight stay within the legally permitted working hours of the crew. Lufthansa said that for safety reasons the airline did not want to let the crew disembark in Tehran and spend the night, as required by labor law due to the length of the flight.

Serious threats between Israel and Iran
Lufthansa's decision came after Iran and Israel threatened to attack each other on Wednesday. "The evil regime has made a mistake and must be punished, and it will be," said Iran's Supreme Religious Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a speech at the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

The evil regime has made a mistake and must be punished, and it will be.

Der Oberste religiöse Führer des Irans, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Shortly afterwards, Israel threatened to attack Iran if the country attacked Israeli territory from its soil. On April 1, the Iranian consulate in the Syrian capital was allegedly attacked from the air by Israeli warplanes. Up to 16 people were killed, including seven senior officers of the Revolutionary Guards, the second pillar of the Iranian armed forces, which is responsible for foreign operations, among other things. Iran and Israel have been arch-enemies since the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979.