After restarting its services in Israel on March 25th, EasyJet has now announced it will be cancelling all flights to and from the country for the coming six months. This change in plans is due to Iranian strikes on Israel. Other airlines seem to be monitoring the situation at the moment, without suspending their services just yet.
On April 13th, after US warnings of “imminent” Iranian attacks on Israel, Iran carried out some unmanned aerial strikes. Israel was able to intercept 99% of the missiles but the Israeli, Lebanese and Jordanian airspaces were closed for about six-and-a-half-hour. Flights throughout the Middle Eastern airspace had to be diverted and this has had consequences for the flight schedules over the past few days.
“As a result of the continued evolving situation in Israel, easyJet has now taken the decision to suspend its flights to Tel Aviv for the remainder of the summer season until 27 October. Customers booked to fly on this route up to this date are being offered options including a full refund,” the airline explained in a statement. Usually, EasyJet caters flights to Israel from London Luton, Amsterdam, Berlin, Basel, Geneva, and Milan.
Even before the recent events, some airlines had chosen to put their services in Israel on hold until later this year. EasyJet is, so far, the only one to have changed its schedule following the Iranian attack. British Airways is monitoring the situation but operating as usual, while Wizz Air cancelled its flights over the weekend but resumed them on April 16th.
“The airline is closely monitoring the situation with the relevant authorities and keeping its passengers informed of all schedule changes. All passengers affected by the schedule changes will be contacted via email or SMS and provided with rebooking or refund options. Passengers who have booked through a third party should contact their booking provider. The safety and security for our passengers, crew, and aircraft remains our number one priority. We hope that normality comes back to the region soon”, a Wizz Air spokesperson told The Independent.
