Two major European air carriers, British Airways and Air France, announced on Thursday that they are terminating flights to Iran.
British Airways, which reinstated its London to Tehran route in 2015 following the implementation of the nuclear deal, said it will cease flying to Iran on Sept. 23.
“We are suspending our London to Tehran service as the operation is currently not commercially viable,” the airline said in a statement.
Similarly, Air France will stop its flights from Paris to Tehran on Sept. 18 due to “the line’s weak performance.”
KLM, the Dutch arm of the Franco-Dutch airline group Air France KLM, had previously announced that it was halting flights to Tehran.
The decision by two of Europe’s largest carriers comes as the United States reimposed sanctions on Iran following its withdrawal from the nuclear deal in May. While the carriers did not cite the sanctions as the reason for their decision, America has been pressuring European companies to avoid doing business in Iran or risk getting caught up in U.S. sanctions.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the decision by the European airlines to halt their service to Iran.
“That is good, more should follow, more will follow because Iran should not be rewarded for its aggression in the region, for its attempts to spread terrorism far and wide … ,” he told a news conference during a visit to Lithuania.
