Flights had just started resuming to Israel when developments in the Middle East over the past two weeks prompted a new set of cancellations from airlines around the world.
1. Geopolitical landscape
A rocket attack carried out on 28 July on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights region killed 12 children and teenagers. The attack was believed to be carried out by Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and, in response, Israel fired drone and jet attacks in the south of Lebanon and close to the Bekaa Valley.
Since then, Hezbollah leader Fuad Shukr was assassinated in Beirut, Lebanon, on Tuesday and Hamas’ political bureau chief and lead peace negotiator Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, Iran, on Wednesday.
2. Flight avoidance
2.1. Lebanon
Last week began with several airlines terminating flights to and from Beirut, including Air France, the Lufthansa group, Royal Jordanian Airlines, Turkish Airlines, Ethiopian Air, Aegean Airlines and Lebanon’s Middle East Airlines.
2.2. Israel
Then United Airlines, Delta Airlines and British Airways were the first to announce a halt in flights to and from Tel Aviv. Some airlines have only announced a break until 4 August, but with no resolution in sight, it seems cancellations continue until further notice.
- Airlines that have announced they cancelled flights to Israel until 4 August: airBaltic, Croatia Airlines, Vueling Wizz Air.
- Airlines that have announced they cancelled flights to Israel until 6 August: Aegean Airlines, Delta Air Lines, ITA Airways.
- Airlines that have announced they cancelled flights to Israel until 8 August: Air India, Ethiopian Airlines, Royal Jordanian and Singapore Airlines.
- Airlines that have announced they cancelled flights to Israel until 9 August: Lufthansa Group (Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Eurowings, Lufthansa and Swiss Airlines).
Other cancellations at the moment include Air Europe (4-7 August), KLM (until 26 October) and, until further notice, LOT Polish Airlines and United Airlines.
Meanwhile, BlueBird Airways, Air France and Ryanair, continue their services to Israel, while FlyDubai maintains most flights, except for a few night ones. Israeli airlines also continue regular schedules, except Arkia and Israir, which had to stop flights operated on leased aircraft that were not allowed by the lessors to return to Tel Aviv.
2.3. Iran and Middle East airspace
Not many airlines were flying to Iran even before the escalation of the conflicts. From those who were operating to the country, Turkish Airlines announced Friday evening it was postponing all flights to various destinations withing Iran, but was supposed to resume them the following day, according to Anadolu Agency.
Other airlines, that were flying over Iranian airspace despite not operating flights to the country, have started going around. Singapore Airlines, Taiwan’s EVA Air and China Airlines stopped flying through Iranian airspace on Friday.
On the other hand, United Arab Emirates carriers Etihad, Emirates and FlyDubai, as well as Qatar Airways were still flying over Iran on Friday. At the time of writing, Turkish Airlines, flyDubai and Emirates flights appear to be passing over Iran on tracking website Flightradar24.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, Canada issued a notice to Canadian aircraft to avoid Lebanese airspace for one month due to the risk to aviation from military activity. The UK has had a similar notice in place for the past month, warning pilots of potential risk from anti-aircraft weaponry and military activity in Lebanon’s airspace.
