Virgin Atlantic faces a $1 million fine from the U.S. government for flying through Iraqi airspace when that was prohibited by the Federal Aviation Administration because of heightened fears of conflict.
The U.S. Department of Transportation said Virgin Atlantic, a code-share partner of Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines, operated “a significant number of flights” that carried the Delta code between the U.K. and India over restricted airspace in Iraq between Sept. 16, 2020 and Sept. 16, 2021.
The FAA notified pilots in March 2020 of a prohibition on flights in the Baghdad area at all altitudes due to “heightened militia activities and increased tensions in Iraq.” The notification came in the form of a Notice to Air Missions, which is also the FAA system that had an outage causing thousands of flight delays last week.
