Turkish Airlines, AJet and Pegasus pull Iran flights from schedules into 2027 amid US sanctions

Turkish Airlines, its low-cost unit AJet, and private budget carrier Pegasus have pulled Iran flights from their booking systems, with Turkish Airlines and AJet listing no Iran service before March 2027 and Pegasus removing its Iran routes for the foreseeable future, according to a review of the carriers' booking systems by Middle East Eye. A Turkish Airlines representative told Iran International by phone that the carrier had no Iran flights scheduled before March and could not guarantee service would resume then. None of the three airlines has publicly announced an extension or attributed the scheduling changes to US sanctions.

Turkish carriers initially suspended Iran services in late February after US and Israeli strikes on Iran prompted widespread airspace closures. Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu subsequently announced a series of extensions, citing security risks and continued disruption across regional airspace. The US Treasury Department on September 8 sanctioned 36 targets connected to Iran's aviation industry, including 27 Iranian airlines and foreign companies accused of providing aircraft, cargo, sales and other services to Iranian carriers, and suspended authorizations that had permitted non-US airlines to operate US-origin or US-controlled commercial aircraft into Iran, though the Treasury said aviation safety-related requests would be considered case-by-case.

Washington also sanctioned three Turkey-based companies — Sky Phoenix, S Sistem Logistics and MES Cargo — over alleged support for Mahan Air, which has been under US sanctions since 2011 over alleged support for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force. The Treasury alleged Sky Phoenix acted as an intermediary in the transfer of at least three Boeing 777 aircraft to Mahan Air, that S Sistem Logistics coordinated shipments including drone components and industrial equipment, and that MES Cargo provided sales services and arranged shipments. Mahan Air suspended all flights to Turkey beginning September 21, with notices to travel agencies attributing the decision to instructions from Turkish aviation officials but not explicitly citing US sanctions.

Iran Air said it had received no official notification from Turkish, Azerbaijani or Iraqi aviation regulators ordering it to suspend flights to İstanbul, Baku or Najaf, Agence France-Presse reported. Georgia barred Iranian carriers on Monday, while two Iraqi sources told AFP that Baghdad planned to suspend flights operated by Iranian airlines following the US Treasury announcement. Iran has 27 airlines, the majority operating domestic routes, with Iran Air and Mahan Air serving as its main international carriers.

This case shows how a sanctions package aimed at intermediaries and equipment suppliers can ripple into scheduling decisions that airlines never formally announce. Turkish Airlines, AJet and Pegasus have not attributed their withdrawal from the Iran market to the Treasury action, yet the timing — bookings disappearing shortly after the September 8 sanctions and Mahan Air's own suspension of Turkey flights on September 21 — points to carriers managing exposure quietly rather than through public statements.

Bilateral air links built on tourism, business, medical travel and family visits are vulnerable precisely because they depend on continuous authorization chains: aircraft leasing or transfer arrangements, cargo and sales service providers, and the regulators that clear routes. When any link in that chain is sanctioned, as happened with Sky Phoenix, S Sistem Logistics and MES Cargo over their alleged role in Mahan Air's Boeing 777 transfers, airlines elsewhere in the network can pull capacity without waiting for a directive, since the risk of secondary exposure outweighs the revenue from a handful of routes.

What happens next will be visible less in official announcements than in booking systems and neighboring markets: whether Iraq follows through on suspending Iranian carrier flights as its sources indicated, whether Iran Air's routes to İstanbul, Baku and Najaf remain unaffected absent a formal order, and whether Turkish Airlines' March 2027 placeholder date holds or slips further as the sanctions regime evolves.