Originally Posted by
soontobeformerexpat
I honestly don't know, but I've been watching flights from Dubai lately and they also seem to be delayed. It could be because of the restricted airspace over Iran causing congestion on flight routes. However, that's just conjecture.
Airspace congestion surely doesn't help, nor does peak summer travel, even had bad weather in Dubai over the weekend.
Since flights also avoid Syria, there's a very narrow gap between Syria and Iran flights have to squeeze through when crossing from Turkey into Iraq (which, ironically, was the previous hotspot planes avoided for a while as well). Surely doesn't help.
Having to avoid Iran adding meaningful flight time polar routes to West Coast of US, for example. Has added 30-60 mins to DXB-SFO.