Bangkok. At first glance, Row F in the departure hall of Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport looks like any other. On the left, Swiss is checking in passengers for Zurich, on the right, travelers from Philippine Airlines are waiting in line. What is unusual, however, are the seven switches in the middle. Anyone who checks in their luggage here will fly to a place that is hardly accessible from abroad: Tehran.
Actually, the flight that connects the Thai capital with the Iranian capital twice a week should no longer exist. At least that is US President Donald Trump's wish. US sanctions have been in effect against all Iranian airlines since the end of September. The declared goal: to bring the country's international flight operations to a complete standstill and thus cut Iran off from the rest of the world.
To achieve its goal, the US government in Washington is threatening to impose secondary sanctions on anyone who still works with Iran's aviation industry. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had specified the desired approach with regard to the planes from Iran: “When they land, they may neither be refueled nor provided with landing services,” he said. Otherwise, the Iranian airlines' business partners would be excluded from the dollar system, he added.
But while Western countries and a large part of Iran's neighbors are following Washington's instructions, countries in eastern Asia are refusing to isolate Iran. In China and Southeast Asia, Mahan Air, Iran's largest private airline, is expanding seven months after the start of the Iran War.
According to data from the analysis company Cirium, the airline is planning 78 flights to China this month - almost twice as many as in October 2025. Six flights are planned to Vietnam. The country was not even represented in Mahan's flight schedule a year ago. The connection to Bangkok is at the same level as last year with nine flights. The airline plans to serve the route with an additional flight in December.
The focus on China is obvious: the People's Republic is Iran's most important trading partner and has expressly rejected US demands to turn away Iranian airlines. In Vietnam and Thailand the situation is more complicated. The government in Hanoi has moved strongly towards the US in recent years and has upgraded the relationship with the country to a “comprehensive strategic partnership”. Thailand is even formally an ally of the USA - but it still doesn't do what Trump wants.
The Thai Foreign Ministry left unanswered a query about Thailand's position in the tussle over Iran's airlines. The state airport operator AOT also did not respond to a request for comment. However, the fact that the country continues to keep its runways open to Iran clearly shows the limits of Trump's “Operation Economic Outcast,” which, according to the White House, aims to “complete global isolation” of the country.
Travelers who took the flight from Bangkok to Tehran last Wednesday evening were relieved about the remaining flight connections. “In the end, all these sanctions only affect normal people like us,” said a 54-year-old man who did not want to give his name for fear of repression. He says he went on vacation for eight days in Thailand with his wife. The economic situation at home is difficult. “I'm just tired and needed a few days to recover,” he says. “This is not a crime and should not be banned by anyone.”
Some passengers apparently also use their stay in Thailand to buy products that are not available in their home country. A traveler carries several shopping bags from the fashion chain Zara to the gate of the Iranian airline.
Opportunities for Iranians to travel abroad have become rare. In addition to China, Thailand and Vietnam, Mahan is currently only heading to Russia, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The airline is currently excluded from other routes that used to fly regularly, such as to Türkiye, Oman or the United Arab Emirates. Iraq partially reopened to Iranian airlines at the beginning of October - but Mahan Air is expressly excluded from the landing permit.
The reason for this is probably that the airline is particularly controversial internationally because of its suspected proximity to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. The USA, for example, has had Iran's Mahan Air on its terror list since 2011. The government in Washington accuses the airline of having transported fighters, weapons and money on behalf of the Revolutionary Guard - including for Hezbollah in Lebanon and the former Assad regime in Syria. Mahan and the government in Tehran reject the allegations.
The airline has also been unwanted in Europe for years. In January 2019, Germany revoked Mahan's landing permission for the flights to Düsseldorf and Munich. The federal government justified this by transporting military equipment and personnel to the Syrian war zone. Mahan has also been on the EU sanctions list since October 2024 because the airline is said to have flown Iranian drones to Russia. In April, the US Treasury Department also placed the airline's Boeing aircraft, which Mahan Air uses on its East Asian routes, on its sanctions list.
The Boeing 777 jets have been flying for Mahan for less than a year and came into the fleet in an adventurous way. They were built for Singapore Airlines in the early 2000s. They later flew for the Thai low-cost airline Nokscoot. After their bankruptcy in 2020, they stood unused in the Australian desert for almost three years. Then in 2023, a Florida shell company bought five of the jets and brought them to China. At the beginning of 2025 they were admitted to an alleged start-up in Madagascar, and in July 2025 they flew from Cambodia to Iran.
The complex transaction was necessary because Mahan Air was already unable to purchase the aircraft directly due to sanctions. In Madagascar, the deal now has legal repercussions. Since September, 33 defendants have been on trial over the deal with Iran, including a former transport minister and the former head of the aviation authority. They are accused, among other things, of forging documents and “endangering state security”.
Of the five Boeings that Mahan Air received in this way, the airline can currently only use three. One of the machines has not yet been put into service. Another, which had been in use for a few months on the route to China, was destroyed in an attack on Mashhad airport in northeastern Iran at the end of March.
However, it is not just the direct fighting that is causing security concerns for the airline. Mahan Air has not recorded a single fatal accident since it began operations in the early 1990s, says aviation safety expert Jan-Arwed Richter. However, the airline's safety record is suffering from the structural aging of the fleet and the lack of spare parts due to the existing sanctions. In addition, according to a report in the New York Times, there was no manufacturer-supported reactivation of the newly purchased Boeings after years of storage in the desert. But that is a common standard after such long breaks in action.
The passengers who check in in Bangkok for the flight to Tehran have no other choice. Since spring, practically no foreign airline has been flying to Iran. Mahan Air has almost no alternative for long-haul flights. Only a small part of the Iranian population can afford to travel from the war zone to vacation. A return flight from Tehran to Bangkok costs the equivalent of around 700 euros. The passengers who are willing to chat at the check-in counter have good jobs in their home countries.
For example, the 54-year-old vacationer traveling with his wife introduces himself as a chemical engineer. Another passenger says he is a doctor and flew to Bangkok for a medical conference - with enough cash in his luggage, as Iranian bank cards do not work abroad. A third man, who also did not want to give his name, said he worked as a representative for two pump manufacturers in Germany. However, due to the economic situation in Iran, he has not achieved any deals for two years. “It’s difficult right now, a lot of people aren’t feeling well,” he says. Even medication has become unaffordable for many. The fact that in this situation air travel is a luxury, only affordable for a few, is also evident at check-in. In the three hours before departure, only a few passengers come to the Mahan counters. Nobody has to wait. The staff seems bored; several employees sit at the edge of the baggage carousel and look at their smartphones. Otherwise there's nothing to do.
