
Two European airlines, KLM and Austrian Airlines, have announced that they will stop their flights to Tehran due to a decline in ticket sales.
Reuters reported on Saturday January 12 that KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, which currently flies to Iran four times a week, will halt all flights to Tehran as of April 2013.
Austrian Airlines has also announced that it is halting its flights to Tehran, as there is no longer any demand for seats. Its last flight from Vienna to Tehran is scheduled for January 13. The airline previously ran four flights a week to Tehran, which was reduced to three flights in November.
Lufthansa has announced that it will maintain its five flights per week to Tehran, and the Alitalia website reports that its flight to Tehran will continue as before.
EU and U.S. sanctions on Iran have cut Iran’s oil revenues in half; that, combined with a number of economic problems in the country, has prompted a sharp decline in the Iranian national currency, reducing the purchasing power of Iranians.