AZANS: 110 additional daily overflights pass through Azerbaijan amid tensions in Middle East

Between 13 and 23 June, the Azerbaijan Air Navigation Services (AZANS) recorded 10,838 total flights through Azerbaijan’s airspace, AZANS Director Farhan Guliyev said in an article published on the official platform of CANSO (Civil Aviation Air Navigation Service Organization), Report informs.

According to Guliyev, 8,207 of those were transit flights, with an average of 110 additional daily overflights redirected from temporarily closed airspaces in the region: "This growth is not an anomaly. Transit traffic over Azerbaijan had already increased by 20 per cent in June 2024 compared to 2023, and June 2025 is projected to see an additional 13 per cent growth."

Reliable transit corridor in times of geopolitical instability

In June 2025, heightened geopolitical instability in the Middle East forced many airspace closures, affecting Iran, Israel and their neighbouring countries. This triggered an urgent reassessment of routing options for international carriers travelling between Europe and Asia. "With minimal disruption, my organisation – AZANS – ensured operational continuity and absorbed hundreds of flights diverted to the North over Azerbaijani airspace. This was more than a contingency path: AZANS demonstrated what long-term investment in resilience, coordination, and modernisation can deliver. Since 2022, Azerbaijan’s airspace has played a vital role in providing alternative and efficient air routes in response to regional geopolitical crises," Guliyev said.

Flexible and planned response during the crisis

He said in order to absorb this new wave of traffic, AZANS activated its multi-layered contingency response plan within hours:

As a result, Azerbaijan demonstrated its ability to swiftly accommodate rerouted traffic, with no ATC delays or procedural disruptions during this period of regional pressure.

Crucially, AZANS did not face ATC system constraints in response to the crisis. Instead, Guliyev said, the organisation benefited from years of prior investments in advanced air traffic management technologies and procedures such as:

"These systems enabled rapid, data-driven decision-making and supported AZANS in balancing capacity across sectors without compromising predictability or controller workload," he said.

Azerbaijan's role in global aviation is strengthening

Today, more than 200 international airlines routinely use Azerbaijani airspace, according to Guliyev. In 2024 alone, approximately 50 million passengers flew through these routes.

"At the peak of the recent crisis, over 25 leading carriers – including Turkish Airlines, Air France, British Airways, and Singapore Airlines – fully rerouted their flights over Azerbaijan, demonstrating high confidence in AZANS’s network reliability. Despite these rerouting pressures, all Azerbaijani international airports continued operations without delays or service interruptions," he noted.

"Joint activities between Türkiye and Central Asian ANSPs, focusing on airspace and route development, air traffic flow management, and the harmonised implementation of the latest ATC technologies with neighbouring air navigation service providers, enabled effective and coordinated airspace use. These pillars helped AZANS manage the crisis effectively – offering not just a safe sky, but also a strategic air bridge for global aviation, supporting the vital air transport supply chain in a time of uncertainty," the AZANS director said.

Latest news

Armenian PM arrives in Paris 14 July, 2025 / 19:34