The strike levelled an Iranian diplomatic building in Syria and killed seven members of the elite Revolutionary Guards, including two generals. 

That weekend, Iran launched hundreds of drones and missiles at Israel in its first direct attack on Israeli territory. 

SIA said on Apr 14 that it would skip Iranian air space and use alternative flight paths, adding that it was closely monitoring the situation in the Middle East. 

Other airlines such as Qantas, Lufthansa and Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) also stopped using Iranian airspace at the time. 

However, using alternative routes also meant longer flights between Singapore and most of its destinations in Europe. 

SIA flights between Singapore and Europe would have typically flown over Iran, according to data from flight tracking service Flightradar24. 

To avoid the air space, flights took a circuitous northerly route that passes over Central Asia, the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus, leading to longer flight times. 

On Apr 16, an SIA spokesperson said all SIA flights operating from Singapore to Amsterdam, Brussels, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Istanbul, London, Manchester, Milan, Munich, Paris, Rome and Zurich as well as New York’s John F Kennedy (JFK) and Newark airports were affected by the rerouting.

For example, a flight from Singapore to London’s Heathrow Airport on Apr 15 clocked a flight time of 14 hours and three minutes. The average flight time for the service is 13 hours and 39 minutes, according to Flightradar24.

A check on Flightradar24 on Monday evening showed that other airlines were also using Iranian airspace, including SWISS, Qatar Airways and Emirates.

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