Dubai-based Emirates Airline expects to operate flights to Iranian cities as usual despite the US government’s reimposition of secondary sanctions.

“All flights are running as per normal schedules to Iran,” an Emirates Airline spokesperson tells MEED.

Emirates is understood to be the second-most active carrier in Iran next to Turkish Airlines and has plans to expand its operations there.

The airline has been operating four daily flights to Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International airport and five weekly flights to Mashhad, the Islamic Republic’s second most populous city.

Other airlines such as Sharjah-based Air Arabia, Dubai-based Flydubai, Oman Air and Kuwait Airways operate flights between their home cities and Tehran or Mashhad.

Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways suspended its flights to Tehran in January this year as part of its strategy review.

“I don't see how Gulf airlines are directly impacted, nor would they reduce or stop flights to cities in Iran,” says Saj Ahmad, chief analyst at London-based StrategicAero Research. “If anything, there's a good argument to be made that [because] the sanctions will make travel difficult for ordinary Iranians [...] they may have little choice but to fly out of the country using GCC airlines.”

Other GCC airlines did not return MEED’s request for comment.

The US Treasury Department designated five Iranian airlines as of May. They are Mahan Air, Caspian Airlines, Meraj Air, Pouya Air and Dena Airway.

It also sanctioned four Istanbul-based logistics companies – 3G Lojistik ,Otik Aviation, RA Havacilik and Trigron Lojistik – and a fourth one, Tehran-based Blue Airways.

This means businesses or individuals that deal with these companies are at risk of violating the sanctions.

Secondary sanctions are designed to pressure non-US businesses and citizens to halt activities with a sanctioned country, in this case Iran, by denying access to the US market or financial system, among others.

For the UAE, the sanctions added another layer of complexity to an already delicate situation over the global positioning of its airlines.

It was only in May this year that the UAE and US finally reached an agreement over fifth freedom flights, resolving a years-long Open Skies dispute.