The airline Biman Bangladesh has been planning to fly between Dhaka and Rome-Fiumicino again for some time. However, there is resistance from the United States because the regular flight route would use Iranian airspace. Corresponding fees would therefore also have to be paid to this state.

This is exactly what will be problematic for Biman Bangladesh, because the US authorities see this as a violation of the sanctions. It's not about the use of the airspace, but about paying the fees for overflight and air traffic control. According to the Americans, paying this would violate the existing sanctions. This now finds Biman in a quandary.

On the one hand, the USA is exerting considerable pressure not to pay Iran and, on the other hand, they are of the opinion that they don't really have an economic alternative to this route. The United States has even given the carrier the route that if the sanctions are ignored, you could end up on the sanctions list yourself. This would then massively restrict the options for international air traffic, because it is to be expected that many states would then be able to refuse cooperation with Biman Bangladesh in order not to get into a conflict with the USA.

According to local newspaper The Daily Star, the Bangladesh-based carrier is already having problems with US authorities. A member of the management admits that fees have already been paid to Iran in the past for the use of airspace. That's exactly why we're now under massive pressure: The USA wants to prevent such payments from flowing to the regime at all costs, and at the same time you can't use routes that go through Iran if you don't pay. You are in a dilemma, explains the unnamed member of the Biman management.

Of course there are alternatives that would exclude Iran's airspace. But Biman Bangladesh is of the opinion that if the Rome flights are planned to resume, this would mean that they would have to fly a detour of around 1,5 hours and have to pay fees to three other countries. The bottom line would then be that the costs would be significantly higher and the flights would then no longer be economically viable.

But people also feel that they are being discriminated against by the United States of America for other reasons. Numerous Western airlines, including airlines based in NATO countries, sometimes fly over Iran several times a day and sometimes even offer non-stop flights to/from Tehran. However, the USA does not exert any pressure on these providers, even though they also have to make payments to Iran. In this respect, Biman Bangladesh cannot understand why the United States of America has such a big problem with the planned Rome route.

The carrier even accuses that it is just a pretext because, from Biman's point of view, the USA generally has a problem with the entire flight route. This will run from Bangladesh via Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia and Bosnia to Italy. This would allow a flight time of around nine hours. The problems surrounding possible US sanctions have not yet been resolved. Biman says they have already lodged a formal objection, but the US ministry has not yet responded.