Commercial Fixed Wing
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
General None Reported / Taken
Airspace Structure; Company Policy; Environment - Non Weather Related
Our flight was scheduled for approximately six and a half hours from ZZZZ-ZZZZ1. It's been this way for years in fact. And today was indeed a two man crew.  But this flight was about eight and a half hours. This is in light of the Iranian geopolitical situation involving the large; no fly zone across the Middle East.  Now we have an entirely different routing over a different region which goes over Africa instead of traversing from Asia to Europe. So we were scheduled six and a half hours and showed up for an eight a half hour flight; which we didn't realize or expect. We called to confer with with the chief pilot; and the company directed us to go. The company said we were legal because of flight history and 121.471 allows for airspace closure. This is contrary from what I understood. FAR 121 allows a flight normally and reasonably at eight hours to depart if local; daily circumstances have varied to increase flight time over eight hours. This would allow for things like strong winds; significant convective weather; or a TFR Temporary Flight Restriction. None were the case here.   In this case; historical data also wouldn't be relevant since this new routing is over another region-continent; not just a different airway. Furthermore; this particular flight was also VMC with no delays. In fact we also had three ATC shortcuts. And we had a visual approach. The flight was 8:37. This has been the case precedent in decades past with the FAA when airlines mistakenly substituted different aircraft or utilized non great circle routing for any reason; adversely altering a flight schedule with no relief pilot. The eight hour regulation is the reason and intent for having pilot relief over eight hours scheduled - to mitigate fatigue.
Air carrier pilot reported that a flight scheduled for 6.5 hours was planned for 8.5 hours due to a company routing change that has become standard practice in order to avoid a no-fly zone. The flight was dispatched with 2 pilots; however an additional relief pilot was needed.