TEHRAN – Turkey’s flag carrier Turkish Airlines has extended the suspension of its flights to Iran until October 1, reneging on its previous announcement for resuming flights to Tehran and four other cities of Tabriz, Shiraz, Mashhad, and Isfahan as of September 1.

Although Turkey has resumed flights to many countries in June and July after few months of suspension over the COVID-19 pandemic, it still keeps its common borders with Iran closed, ISNA reported on Tuesday.

According to the schedule, 21 flights per week were to be carried out to Tehran, four flights per week Tabriz, and four per week to Shiraz as of September 1. And two flights per week were to be made to the cities of Mashhad and Isfahan in a two-times-a-week agenda.

However, repeated delays in the reopening Iran-Turkey borders have damaged the tourism ties between the two countries. As Turkey is a country through which many trips of Iranians living abroad and foreign nationals to Iran are made, many passengers are left confused.

Not announcing a reliable flight schedule, has prevented several businessmen and students from continuing their activities and even left patients who want to go abroad for further treatment helpless.

The pandemic has taken a huge toll on Iran’s civil aviation sector with reports showing that airlines lost hundreds of millions of dollars because of flight cancellations during the busy New Year travel season in late March.

Some 1.37 million Iranian tourists visited Turkey during the first eight months of 2019, accounting for 4.4% of all international arrivals in the country.

ABU/MG