The United States has fined Emirates Airlines $1.8 million for operating flights in "prohibited Iraqi airspace." The U.S. Department of Transportation stated that the world's largest long-haul airline operated aircraft using the trademark code of American airline JetBlue Airways Corp over areas in the country that were banned by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for American operators.
The Department confirmed the violations but did not mention flying in Iraqi airspace in a statement published on its website. It noted that an investigation by the Office of Aviation Consumer Protection revealed that between December 2021 and August 2022, Emirates Airlines operated a significant number of flights under the "JetBlue" code on routes between the United Arab Emirates and the United States in airspace prohibited by the FAA for American operators.
It added that "by operating these flights in this manner, Emirates Airlines violated the conditions of the authority granted to it for operations involving passengers traveling to and from the United States without appropriate oversight from the U.S. Department of Transportation. This behavior also violated a previously agreed order issued in October 2020, which imposed penalties on Emirates Airlines for operating flights that carried the 'JetBlue Airways' code in airspace subject to FAA restrictions."
The "codeshare agreement" is a commercial arrangement that allows an airline to sell seats on a flight operated by another airline, as explained by Bloomberg. The airline had previously received a similar fine in October 2020, according to a prior statement released by the U.S. Department of Transportation.
According to the approval order at that time, Emirates Airlines stated that pilots entered the restricted airspace because they were directed there by air traffic controllers. JetBlue noted that the "codeshare agreement" with Emirates Airlines ended in October 2022, and that it had no relation to the flights mentioned in the U.S. Department's statement. Bloomberg reported that the two companies entered into a "codeshare agreement" in 2013.
