Lufthansa and Air France: extension of flight suspensions to Beirut and Tel Aviv – 09/20/2024 at 00:40

Lufthansa and Air France announced on Thursday that they were extending the suspension of their flights to Tel Aviv and Beirut due to tensions in the region.

“Due to the security situation at the destination, Air France is suspending its connections” between Paris “and Beirut (Lebanon)” and between Paris “and Tel-Aviv (Israel) until September 20,” the company told AFP.

At the same time, Lufthansa has extended the suspension of its flights to Tel Aviv until September 24 inclusive, and until October 26 for Beirut.

The German airline has also suspended flights to Tehran in Iran until September 24 inclusive.

For its part, the American company Delta Air Lines announced on Thursday that it was extending until the end of the year the suspension of its service between New York and Tel Aviv, initially planned until the end of October.

The Israeli army announced on Thursday that it had bombed seven Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon, increasing pressure on the Lebanese movement in the wake of a series of deadly explosions attributed to Israel that targeted Hezbollah transmission systems.

The explosions killed 37 people and injured nearly 3,000 on Tuesday and Wednesday, heightening fears of a full-scale war in the Middle East.

Israel has not commented on the attacks, which came just after it announced it was expanding its war aims against Palestinian Hamas to the northern border with Lebanon, to allow the return of displaced people in the north of the country.

After resuming its connections with Tehran and Tev-Aviv at the beginning of September, Lufthansa suspended them again on Tuesday evening following the first series of pager explosions in Lebanon.

Many airlines have repeatedly changed their flight schedules in recent months due to heightened tensions in the Middle East.

Air France specified that “the resumption of operations will remain subject to a daily assessment of the situation on site.”

It said it was “constantly monitoring the evolution of the geopolitical situation in the territories served and flown over by its aircraft in order to ensure the highest level of flight safety and security.”