Iran says Tehran's Imam Khomeini Airport remains fully operational despite US sanctions
Why It MattersSecondary-sanctions pressure is reshaping Iran's aviation access piecemeal, as neighboring states curb services while carriers reroute traffic toward markets outside US financial reach.
What happened
Airport spokesman Kashef-Azar said Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran continues to operate normally despite US sanctions on the country's airlines, telling Iranian media that the airport serves more than 30 international destinations and that 60 flights operated successfully on September 23, the day the sanctions took effect.
The US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on 27 Iranian airlines on September 8, targeting carriers that had not previously been sanctioned. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned that airports and companies providing Iranian-operated aircraft with fuel, landing services, or ticket sales could face secondary sanctions that would risk cutting them off from the US financial system.
Following the sanctions, Oman and the UAE suspended Iranian flights, and four airports in Iraq also halted such services. Iranian airlines continue to operate flights to countries including China and Russia. Iran has filed a complaint with the International Civil Aviation Organization over the aviation restrictions and said it is pursuing legal and diplomatic channels to remove the obstacles. Iranian flights to Türkiye are also expected to be suspended in early October.
Industry impact & what to watch
This case illustrates how secondary sanctions work in aviation: rather than targeting the sanctioned carriers directly, Washington's threat against any airport or company that fuels, services, or sells tickets for Iranian-operated aircraft pushes third countries to sever ties on their own to protect their access to the US financial system.
That mechanism explains why the response has been uneven. Oman, the UAE and four Iraqi airports suspended Iranian flights quickly, while China and Russia have kept routes open, showing that compliance depends on each country's own exposure to US financial channels rather than on the sanctions' reach alone. Iran's ICAO complaint is a bid to reframe the dispute as a civil-aviation access question rather than leave it purely bilateral.
The next marker is Türkiye, where Iranian flights are expected to be suspended in early October. Whether that suspension proceeds, and whether ICAO responds to Iran's complaint, will show whether the sanctions regime keeps narrowing Iran's remaining air corridors or whether legal and diplomatic pushback slows that process.
