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News & Current Events Apr 16, 2026 at 1:38 PM

Increased air traffic over Afghanistan, due to war in Iran, generates $1.4 million per week due to Taliban transit fees, despite lack of flight safety measures

Posted by sr_local

Afghanistan's Taliban tap Swiss, other travellers for flyover fees
SWI swissinfo.ch
Afghanistan's Taliban tap Swiss, other travellers for flyover fees
The alternative flight route over Afghanistan is pouring money into the Taliban's coffers.
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Thurak0 3 days ago +39
> The fact that Afghanistan charges high fees for transit is grating because the country has no functioning air traffic control. In Afghan airspace, pilots have to look out for themselves and actively inform each other about altitude, position and speed uhoh. That sounds like it's an accident waiting to happen. Can Turkmenistan and Pakistan provide *some* cover/guidance? Like "you are on the same flight level and course than plane X ten minutes ago, make sure to talk to them and match speed so you won't catch them" or something? With all the traffic over Afghanistan completely self reporting sounds dangerous.
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PorousCheese 3 days ago +21
Coverage obviously, but even more liability. Better to let them mid air over Afghanistan than pay hundreds of millions in lawsuits because your atc missed something when you weren’t even collecting the fee for the overflight.
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xnmyl 2 days ago +4
> That sounds like it's an accident waiting to happen. Probably not. Big Sky Theory posits the 3D airspace is so large, planes have a near zero chance of collision unless on pre-defined flight channels shared by other planes (which Afghanistan doesn't have) TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System) also help planes avoid each other in the worse case scenario, although that's only commercial traffic
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NatAttack50932 2 days ago +4
>uhoh. That sounds like it's an accident waiting to happen. It's not really. These are the same procedures that pilots use on the transatlantic and Transpacific routes. All the planes talk to each other to keep things clear
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xnmyl 2 days ago +1
Those procedures are a bit different, because pilots are following defined traffic channels, and they're generally only going East <-> West, removing a lof of complexity I think big sky theory applies here, since almost no planes are landing un Afghanistan, which is where it breaks down. Very unlikely to have a collision 
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ruskyandrei 3 days ago +27
"So you'll give us ATC support for this fee, right Taliban ?" "..." "... right Taliban ??" "No, but we won't shoot down your plane, so it's a pretty good deal, no ?"
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TheUnbent 2 days ago +3
The taliban side stepping to selling their airspace for a profit was not on my bingo card.
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BangerSlapper1 3 days ago +14
So more funding of our enemies.  Trump really is playing 14th dimensional tiddlywinks, isn’t he. 
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Mysterious_Past6277 3 days ago +7
Don't forget trump refused to stop funding the taliban 40m a week (low estimates) the taliban literally lobbies America. 
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Knees0ck 3 days ago +2
Only the best deals from Our Dear Leader.
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DGIce 2 days ago +2
Oh the per flight fee is $800, interesting to realize the scale of human civilization that it's thousands of flights per day. Saudi Arabia is benefitting about the same and Iraq is losing out.
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