The Dutch airline KLM said in a statement: “As a result of the negative results and financial outlook for the Tehran operation, the last flight will take off from Amsterdam on September 22, 2018 and land at Schiphol on September 23.”
KLM ceased flights to Tehran in 2013, resuming them in 2016 after the nuclear deal between Tehran and major world powers was signed. Under the deal, Iran suspended its sensitive nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief.
In early May, US President Donald Trump announced that the United States would withdraw from the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal, and restore wide-ranging sanctions on Iran, including secondary sanctions against financial institutions of third countries that do business with Tehran.
Against the negative background, several US and EU companies have said that they will or may stop doing business with Iran.
The US ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, requested in June that the German government block Iran’s Mahan Air from flying within German airspace and deny it landing rights in the country because of the airline’s material support for terrorism.
In June, the European Commission said it had adopted an update to the Blocking Statute and the European Investment Bank’s External Lending Mandate to protect the interests of EU companies investing in Iran.
Air France, which resumed flights to Tehran in 2016 after an eight-year absence, continues its flights.
https://www.neweurope.eu/article/klm-suspends-iran-flights-us-sanctions-air-france-continues/