JERUSALEM/CAIRO (Reuters) – Israel, Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan reopened their airspace on Sunday after Iran’s nighttime attack on the Jewish state, airport authorities in the four countries announced.
A spokesperson for Israeli national carrier El Al said it intended to “stabilize the flight schedule as soon as possible” in order to “preserve the airlift to and from Israel.” The company canceled 15 flights scheduled for Sunday to Europe, Dubai and Moscow, and planes that had taken off from Bangkok and Phuket were forced to turn back. Small Israeli airline Arkia has announced an adjustment to its schedule after postponing planned flights to Athens, Milan and Geneva. According to the airport authority, most flights of foreign companies were delayed on Sunday, including Wizz Air flights to London, Air India to New Delhi, Iberia to Madrid and Air France to Marseille. El Al flights to London, Frankfurt, Berlin, Bucharest, Athens, Paris and Rome and that of Ethiopian Airline to Addis Ababa were able to take off. The flight schedule to Israel was also disrupted. Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways has canceled its Sunday flights to Jordan and Israel, the airline said in a statement. Swiss International announced on the X network that it had suspended its flights to and from Tel Aviv until further notice. Owned by the German Lufthansa group, Swiss said its planes were avoiding the airspace of Iran, Iraq and Israel, causing delays on flights from India and Singapore. United Airlines canceled Saturday’s flight between Newark and Tel Aviv due to restrictions on Israeli airspace, the airline said in a statement. United is the only major American company to have resumed flights to Israel since the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7.
The Tehran attack also led Emirates Airlines to cancel some of its flights and reroute some others, the airline’s spokesperson announced on Sunday.
The Austrian airline Austrian Airlines announced that it had suspended all its flights to Tel Aviv, Erbil and Amman until Monday.
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Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport and the airports of several other cities in Iran have, for their part, canceled domestic flights until Monday morning due to tensions in the region, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported on Sunday. .
The airspace in the western part of the country remains closed to flights.
(Reporting James Mackenzie, Hatem Maher and Frederico Maccioni; French version Elizabeth Pineau)
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