Once again, major airlines suspend Israel flights amid tensions with Hezbollah

Lufthansa and Air France stop connections to Israel after pager explosions

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Several major airlines again announced suspensions of their flights to Israel amid recently heightened tensions between Israel and Hezbollah due to the mysterious pager explosions across Lebanon that killed at least 8 and wounded some 3,000 people.

On Tuesday evening, the Lufthansa Group and Air France announced a suspension of their flights to Tel Aviv, Beirut, and Tehran following the pager explosions.

“Due to the recent change in the security situation, the Lufthansa Group airlines have decided to suspend all connections to and from Tel Aviv (TLV) and Tehran (IKA) with immediate effect,” Lufthansa said in a statement.

“This applies up to and including September 19. During this period, the Israeli and Iranian airspace will also be bypassed by all Lufthansa Group Airlines.”

The Lufthansa group includes SWISS, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines and Eurowings.

The airline added that it would be closely monitoring the situation and would “assess it further in the coming days.” Lufthansa had already extended an existing suspension of flights to Beirut until Oct. 15.

Passengers impacted by the cancellations will have the option to cancel their tickets at no cost or to rebook their flights.

Lufthansa and Air France previously participated in the latest round of flight cancellations which followed Iranian threats of retaliation for Israel’s alleged assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July, and only recently resumed connections to Israel.

Before that, the country saw other rounds of cancellations following the Iranian attack in April, and in the immediate aftermath of the October 7 invasion.

“Due to the security situation at the destinations, Air France is suspending its connections from Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Beirut (Lebanon) and… Tel Aviv (Israel) until September 19, 2024, inclusive,” the French airline told the news agency AFP.

Air France said it will “evaluate daily the situation” in the Middle East while emphasizing that “the safety of our customers and crews is the absolute priority.”

Despite the return of most international airlines to Israel in recent weeks, several carriers, including American Airlines, have not resumed flights to Israel.

United Airlines extended its suspension indefinitely, while American Airlines declared a blanket cancellation until March 2025. Delta Airlines canceled all flights to and from Israel until Sept. 30 but will continue to operate under an El Al codeshare.

At the moment, Israel’s flagship airline El Al is the only one flying directly between the United States and Israel.

The broad wave of cancellations has recently garnered the critical attention of several American leaders and media outlets.

After U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-New York) wrote a critical letter to the presidents of the American airlines, the online outlet The Free Press published an article on Monday, asking, “Are U.S. Airlines Effectively Boycotting Israel?”

Former Israeli National Security Advisor Eyal Hulata told The Free Press: “The American carriers are playing into Iran’s game.”