At 12:01 a.m. Eastern Time on September 23, 2026, the US Treasury wind-down authorization expires, making any transaction with the 27 Iranian airlines and nine supporting entities sanctioned by OFAC on September 8 under Operation Economic Outcast illegal without specific permission. General licenses that permitted limited aviation activities, including overflight fee payments and emergency repairs, are now suspended. Fuel suppliers, insurers, banks, and airport operators facing secondary sanctions risk will cut off the financial and logistical infrastructure that keeps Iranian planes operational. Mahan Air, already sanctioned since 2011 for its alleged ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, suspended flights to Oman and Turkey in mid-September, and Georgia became the first country to ban sanctioned Iranian carriers starting September 21. Iran’s international aviation network, already reduced to just 27 routes serving 11 countries by September 2026 compared with dozens of destinations before 2018, faces near-total grounding.
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