Airlines Suspend Flights and Reroute Planes Amid Heightened Tensions in the Middle East
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Following Iran's missile and drone attacks on Israel late Saturday night, several airlines are canceling flights to and from Tel Aviv, as well as rerouting planes scheduled to fly over the Middle East.
Over the weekend, much of the airspace over and surrounding the two countries was closed, meaning passenger planes were banned from flying over many of the nations in the region. In addition to Iran and Israel, airspace over Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon was also closed on Saturday.
Those bans have since been lifted and the airspaces reopened, but that doesn’t mean that airlines have returned to their normal operations in the Middle East. In fact, many carriers are suspending routes to and from Israel for several months, while other airlines are changing the flight paths of planes scheduled to fly through the area so as not to pass over Iran—a move that could lengthen flight times, depending on the destination.
Airlines with canceled or disrupted flights
Some airlines have paused flights to and from Israel for a matter of days, while others have suspended flights well into autumn. Most airlines will contact their customers on affected flights via text or email. Always verify flight information with your airline and reach out to their customer service for help with rebooking and reimbursement.
Delta released a statement in March that it will push the resumption of its daily flights from New York-JFK to Tel Aviv to later this summer. “The decision to resume the route on June 7, 2024, which was temporarily suspended in October 2023, follows an extensive security risk assessment by the airline,” the statement says.
United Airlines, which had just recently resumed daily service between Newark and Tel Aviv in March, said in an emailed statement that it canceled its April 16 flights into Tel Aviv and Amman, Jordan. “We continue to closely monitor the situation and will make decisions on upcoming flights with a focus on the safety of our customers and crews,” a United spokesperson said. The airline has however resumed its flights between Newark and Dubai.
American Airlines told Skift in February that it would suspend all its flights to and from Tel Aviv until October 26, 2024.
KLM stated on its site Saturday that it has canceled all flights to Tel Aviv up to and including April 18.
Virgin Atlantic has suspended flights to and from Tel Aviv up to and including September 4, 2024, according to a travel alert last updated on February 12.
EasyJet told the BBC in a statement Tuesday that it has suspended flights to and from Tel Aviv until October 27.
Cathay Pacific announced in February that it canceled all of its flights to Tel Aviv up to and including October 24, 2024. The airline added: “Despite our best efforts, alternative flights are very limited in the current situation, severely restricting rebooking options.”
Lufthansa said it will resume the flights to Tel Aviv, Amman, and Erbil on Tuesday, April 16. Flights to Tehran and Beirut will remain canceled up to and including Thursday, April 18. Additionally, the airline will not be flying through Iranian airspace up to and including Thursday, April 18.
Air India said in an April 14 alert that it has suspended flights to and from Tel Aviv until Saturday, April 20, 2024.
Air Canada said in an April 16 notice on its website that it has canceled flights to and from Tel Aviv through April 18.
Airlines rerouting around Iran and Israel
Although the airspace over Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, and Iran was reopened by Sunday, April 14, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency issued notices to “exercise caution” in Iran’s airspace, as well as the airspace above Israel and neighboring countries.
As such, some airlines are advising pilots to avoid those areas. Fortunately, for passengers, the resulting flight paths don’t add on a significant amount of extra travel time. Virgin Atlantic has made changes to its India-bound routes: “An additional 30-minute flight time is expected for services to Mumbai and Bengaluru,” the airline told travel industry publication Skift. (FlightRadar24 showed Virgin Atlantic planes instead flying over Egypt and Saudi Arabia to reach India.)
Another airline rerouting planes is Finnair, which says that for the time being, it’s still not using Iranian airspace for its flights in the region. “The changes in flight routes may affect our flights from Doha at the moment, extending the flight time,” the airline said in an online statement that was updated on April 16. FlightRadar24 data showed Finnair’s Qatar-bound flights instead flying a similar route to Virgin Atlantic’s planes: south over Egypt and Saudi Arabia, a change that an airline spokesperson told Reuters would only add a “few minutes” to the flight time.
Some Middle East-based airlines, like Emirates and Qatar Airways, have since resumed flying over Iran. On April 15, Qatar Airways announced on X (formerly Twitter) that “following airport and airspace reopening, that it has resumed its scheduled services to Iran, which include 20 weekly flights to four gateways—Tehran, Mashhad, Shiraz, and Isfahan.”
This is a developing news story, and we will add more information as it becomes available.
Originally Appeared on Condé Nast Traveler
