More commercial flights have been departing Imam Khomeini International Airport after its reopening last week. Iranian authorities lifted a roughly 58-day suspension that followed the launch of the US-Israel war on Iran; flight information boards had also gone offline when the country’s airspace was closed.
The suspension stranded travellers, disrupted businesses and separated families. Air traffic began to return on April 25, with flights to 15 destinations operated by eight domestic airlines. Routes include regional and international destinations such as Medina, Istanbul, Muscat, China and Russia, but the number of services remains a fraction of pre-war levels.
Passengers described long detours and delays. Maryam, who hoped to travel to Toronto to see her daughters, told Al Jazeera she had found a ticket on an Iranian carrier that would fly first to Armenia with a long layover before continuing to Canada.
Before the war, the airport typically handled about 150 flights a day. Terminals that went from crowded to empty are slowly filling again as departures resume. Ramin Kashef Azar, CEO of Imam Khomeini Airport City, said the return of foreign carriers — many long-standing operators in Iran — will hinge on political stability and individual airlines’ risk assessments. The Iranian Civil Aviation Organization reported that 20 aircraft have been destroyed and are no longer operational, but said airport infrastructure was not damaged and is roughly 95 percent ready.
Iran’s aviation regulator described a phased reopening of airspace from April 19: transit flights first, followed by domestic services and then the full resumption of operations at international airports. Yet foreign companies remain cautious about returning amid uncertainty in the political and negotiating landscape between Tehran and Washington.
Targeting of airports
The civil aviation sector has suffered from the wider conflict. More than 3,300 people have been killed in Iran and thousands injured, alongside widespread damage to civilian infrastructure. Mehrabad Airport in Tehran, which mainly handles domestic flights and was the city’s principal airport before Imam Khomeini opened in 2009, was struck several times during the war. Other airports targeted included Kashan, Tabriz, Ahvaz, Mashhad, Khoy and Urmia, and several civilian aircraft were damaged. Mehrabad had previously been reported as targeted in June 2025, though Iranian officials then said runways escaped damage.
The economic impact extends beyond airports. Tourism, hospitality and travel businesses have seen revenue losses, layoffs and operational disruption. Babak, a tour guide, said many colleagues lost their jobs because incoming and outgoing tours halted while flights were suspended and the war continued. Nowruz, the Persian New Year and a peak travel period, was also disrupted: Bijan, a travel agent, said tours, charter flights and hotel bookings were cancelled, forcing his company to process refunds and cut staffing from 20 employees to just two.
Airports are gradually coming back to life and passengers are returning, signaling a fragile normalcy after weeks of silence. Each resumed departure restores a link to the world even as uncertainty on the ground persists.
