A number of international airlines suspended their flights to Israel after the Houthi ballistic missile strike at Ben Gurion Airport on May 4. While some carriers have since resumed operations, others have opted to extend their flight suspension, citing safety concerns for both passengers and crew in light of the continuing regional instability.
Several airlines have suspended their routes for an additional number of days or weeks, with the possibility of further extensions, as the carriers have consistently delayed their return dates following evaluations.
Air France and Polish airline LOT have suspended their flights until May 26; Iberia of Spain until May 31; airBaltic until June 2; ITA of Italy until June 8; Ryanair until June 11; the American airline United Airlines has halted its route until June 12; and Air India until June 19.
Lufthansa Group, which consists of Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, and Eurowings, has extended its flight suspensions to Israel until June 8. In addition, numerous flights to and from Tel Aviv scheduled for June have been eliminated from the timetables.
Air Canada, which was initially scheduled to resume flights to Israel in June, has stated that it will not be resuming operations at this moment.
Today, British Airways also announced an extension of the suspension of flights to and from Israel until July 31. Previously, BA had suspended all flights until mid-June.
In a similar vein, Air France has also extended its flight suspension from May 24 to May 26, although it is still not known whether this pause will be extended passes May 26.
In light of all of these suspensions, foreign carriers have requested that Israel’s Transportation Ministry declare a special security situation and temporarily restrict passenger compensation rights to facilitate the resumption of flight services to the country.
According to aviation law, if a flight is canceled less than 14 days prior to departure, foreign airlines are required to provide the passenger with an alternative flight. However, given the current shortage of available seats, the cost of arranging an alternate flight is significantly higher, to an unreasonable extent, than the fare originally paid by the passenger to the airline.
Airlines also seek to minimize their responsibility to offer hotel accommodations for a maximum of two nights to passengers in cases of flight cancellations, as well as to obtain an exemption from providing financial compensation beyond the reimbursement of ticket fares for flights that are scheduled to commence on May 5 and continue until the conclusion of the emergency situation.
Meanwhile, budget Hungarian carrier Wizz Air resumed its flights to Tel Aviv last week.
Greek Aegean Airlines recommenced its flights to Tel Aviv this week, making it one of the first European air carriers to restart services after pausing operations due to the attack.
US-based Delta Air Lines resumed its daily nonstop service from New York’s JFK Airport to Tel Aviv on Monday. The airline said that this decision was made after a thorough risk assessment and that it will continue to closely monitor the situation.
Additionally, Israeli airline Arkia announced that it will initiate weekly direct flights to the Seychelles starting June 20, in light of Air Seychelles’ suspension of its route to Israel until August.
