Lufthansa suspends flights to Tel Aviv
Lufthansa suspends flights to Tel Aviv due to escalating tensions in the Middle East. All passenger and cargo flights of the airline group to the Israeli metropolis will be temporarily suspended "until August 8th," a spokesperson announced on Thursday. Additionally, the suspension of flights to the Lebanese capital Beirut has been extended until August 12th.
"In light of the current situation, Lufthansa Group is again adjusting its service to the Middle East," the spokesperson explained. Lufthansa subsidiaries include Eurowings, Austrian Airlines, Swiss, and Brussels Airlines. The group and other airlines had suspended their Beirut flights on Monday following the deadly rocket attack from Lebanon on a village on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Since then, tensions have further escalated. On Tuesday, the Israeli army claimed to have killed the top military commander of the Iran-backed and armed Lebanese Hezbollah militia, Fuad Schukr, in Beirut. Fears of the Gaza conflict spreading increased significantly.
On Wednesday, the leader of the radical Palestinian organization Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed in Tehran. Iran blamed Israel. On Thursday, the Israeli army announced that Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif was killed in an air strike in the Gaza Strip on July 13th.
Two aircraft of the Lufthansa group to Tel Aviv did not reach their destination in the night from Wednesday to Thursday. A Lufthansa flight from Munich returned to the departure airport, and a flight of Austrian Airlines was diverted to Sofia in Bulgaria. The group cited the closure of the Iranian airspace for four hours as the reason, stating that "the safety of flights to Tel Aviv could not be guaranteed."
Due to the increase in tensions between Israel and its neighbors, Lufthansa Group decided, because of the safety concerns, to extend the suspension of flights to Beirut until August 12th. Furthermore, because of the escalating conflicts in the Middle East, Lufthansa temporarily suspended all flights to Tel Aviv until August 8th.
