Safety is a priority
Lufthansa is canceling further flights to Iran
April 12, 2024, 8:41 p.m
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Lufthansa operates a direct connection between Frankfurt am Main and Tehran. Due to the tense situation in the region, the company is now canceling all flights between Germany and the Iranian capital. Iranian airspace is also flown around.
In view of increasing tensions in the Middle East, Lufthansa is canceling further flights to and from the Iranian capital Tehran. “Due to the current situation, after careful evaluation, Lufthansa is suspending its flights to and from Tehran until Thursday, April 18th,” said a company spokesman. The airline also no longer uses Iranian airspace. The safety of passengers and crews has top priority.
The company “does not rely solely on government assessments” but rather assesses the current security situation itself, it said. The airline had previously announced that it would suspend its flights to the Iranian capital until Saturday.
US considers threat “real and tangible”
The Iranian leadership had threatened to attack Israel in recent days. On April 1, a suspected Israeli airstrike destroyed an Iranian consular building in the Syrian capital Damascus. The attack killed 16 people, including two generals of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and five other members of the elite force.
The US government recently emphasized once again the danger of an Iranian attack on Israel. “We continue to believe the potential threat from Iran is real and tangible,” said US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby. Kirby declined to confirm reports that US officials believed an attack was “imminent.”
In view of the regional tensions, France called on its citizens to avoid traveling to several countries in the region. Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné recommends that “French citizens absolutely avoid traveling to Iran, Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian territories in the coming days,” the Foreign Ministry in Paris told the AFP news agency.
According to the Federal Foreign Office, Germany is not yet planning to tighten its current travel and safety instructions for the affected countries. Travel warnings are currently in effect for Israel and the Palestinian territories, Iran and Lebanon. Germans in the Palestinian territories are also “recommended” to leave the country, and they are even “encouraged” to do so from Iran and Lebanon.