That path is to avoid Iranian airspace, and (it seems) Afghani airspace too, albeit the route has cut over the NE corner of Afghanistan once north of Kabul. I wonder if there was something on board the owners didn’t want any risk of the Iranians finding out about. However, odd that it didn’t fly over Saudi either!
Flights from the Gulf airports (UAE, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain etc etc), destined for Europe, usually fly up the Gulf, overfly Kuwait and Iraq, before entering Turkish airspace.
They don't usually overfly Iran, unless heading for Russia, or on Polar routes to North America.
This particular routing looks very odd, but looking at the FR24 playback, it has followed this route every Thursday since the beginning of April.
In March it also followed the same routing, but departing much earlier in the day.
It's a bit odd, as the usual alternative route from the Gulf to Europe, is via Saudi and Egyptian airspace.
There are certain cargo's that can cause a problem when it comes to overflying rights.
The most common issue that can limit access, is "Hazardous Cargo", which could include various things like munitions, Nuclear materials, high risk chemicals etc.
Certain military flights, or flights operated by civil operators on charter to military customers, require diplomatic clearance and this is sometimes a problem.
However, this just seems to be a regular scheduled cargo service, rather than a special one off, operating under a limitation of some sort.
It seems quite improbable that clearance to overfly Iraq or Kuwait would be an issue for Singapore Cargo, even if carrying such an unusual load.
As it's a regular routing, there has to be some regulatory reason limiting a more direct and economical flight plan?
[EDIT 26/04/25
SIA7934 is taking the same, extended routing today.
Departed Sharjah 0831 UTC
This routing appears to add approx. 3hrs 20 mins to the flying time.
That extra cost, especially as it's a regularly flown routing, must be considerable, so there must be a very valid reason for it? ]
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