Air France, KLM fined $425k for low flights over Iraq

The US Department of Transportation (DOT) announced Friday that it has imposed $425,000 in fines on two major European carriers, Air France and KLM, after they operated dozens of flights through Iraqi airspace at altitudes below the permitted safety floor, in direct violation of American safety directives.

According to an investigation by the DOT's Aviation Consumer Protection division, more than 130 such flights were operated between 2022 and 2025. Dutch carrier KLM operated over 100 of the flights, and Air France over 30. All of the flights carried Delta Air Lines code-share numbers under partnership agreements, making them subject to US regulation.

The issue was not flying through Iraqi airspace itself, but the altitude. US authorities have for years set a minimum safety floor of 32,000 feet (approximately 9.75 kilometers) in the Baghdad Flight Information Region (FIR), intended to reduce the risk to civilian aircraft from ground-based weapons or other threats in the unstable region. Flying below that altitude is considered a serious violation.

Under the settlement reached, KLM was hit with the larger penalty, $320,000, and Air France with $105,000. A portion of the total fine ($265,000) must be paid within 60 days, with the remainder to be collected only if the carriers commit further violations within a year. Both airlines were also ordered to avoid similar violations in the future.

The carriers argued in response that their pilots had followed instructions from local air traffic control, which directed them to descend due to traffic congestion, and that refusing such instructions could have endangered the flight. The DOT rejected the claim, stating that the airlines should have planned alternative routes in advance or removed the Delta code from those flights once they became aware the problem was recurring over a period of years.

The decision underscores once again American strictness on flight safety in dangerous regions, even when the carriers involved are foreign airlines operating under US code.

Air France was convicted last year, along with Airbus, of corporate manslaughter in the deaths of 228 people, in a historic verdict related to the tragic 2009 crash of Flight AF447. KLM, meanwhile, has faced its own challenges, including a suspected Ebola exposure after contact with a passenger who died from the disease.