Transport union calls for government intervention over dangerous flight paths

The Transport Workers Union has called on the federal government to intervene in ensuring flight safety, as international aviation officials pushed for better information on flight risks.

A Qantas jet flies past the control tower at Sydney Airport.

The Transport Workers Union has called on the federal government to intervene to force Australian airlines to stop flying over war zones.

It comes after Qantas said it would continue flying over Iraqi airspace, despite network partner Emirates deciding to alter its routes over concerns about fighting in the country. Qantas says it has no plans to re-route.

Union spokesman Tony Sheldon says the government must step in to prevent passengers being put at risk.

"At the very least, there's a requirement for passengers to be told where they are flying, whether they're flying over a war zone, and this air of secrecy between the government and airlines needs to cease," he said.

"The Australian travelling public not only have a right to not be travelling over war zones, they have a right, when the government enforces an option to know where the hell they're going."

It comes as aviation officials called for better dissemination of flight risks and a UN law restricting anti-aircraft weapons use.

The group were at an emergency meeting in Canada, on the downing of Flight MH17 over Ukraine.

International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) secretary-general Raymond Benjamin and International Air Transport Association (IATA) director Tony Tyler said that both steps are urgently needed to fill gaps in airline safety in the wake of the MH17 disaster.

"MH17 has demonstrated that powerful and sophisticated anti-aircraft weaponry is in the hands of non-state industries," said Tyler, who represents 240 airlines.

"Civil aircrafts are instruments of peace and they should never be the target of weapons of war."

Tyler pointed to international conventions on lethal chemical, nuclear and biological weapons, among others.

"But there's no international law or convention that imposes on states a duty to manage the design, manufacture, and deployment of anti-aircraft weapons," he lamented.

Tyler said airlines also "need clear and accurate information on which to base operational decisions on where and when it's safe to fly.

"And in the case of MH17, airlines were told that flights above 32,000 feet that go through Ukraine would not be in harm's way and we now know how wrong that was."