Several airlines have suspended or cancelled flights in the Middle East and some countries have shut their airspace after Israel launched a wave of air strikes on Iran.
The Israeli attacks targeted military facilities, nuclear sites and residential areas in the early hours of Friday. Iran has since retaliated with a wave of missile strikes across Israel.
Here is a list of suspended and rerouted flights:
- Emirates, the Middle East’s largest airline, said it had cancelled flights to and from Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Iran until June 15. Several flights scheduled for Friday and one Tehran flight on Saturday were listed as cancelled on the airline’s website.
- Qatar Airways, the country’s national carrier and one of the Middle East’s largest, said it had temporarily cancelled flights to and from Iran and Iraq “due to [the] current situation in the region”. It also said flights to Damascus will be cancelled until June 14.
- El Al Airlines, an Israeli flag carrier, said it had suspended flights to and from Israel and was moving some of its planes out of the country. It has advised customers, whose flights are scheduled for Saturday and Sunday evening, to avoid airports and to await updates regarding their flight status.
- Israir, a budget Israeli carrier, said it had canceled all its flights to and from Israel until June 15 and was evacuating its planes from Tel Aviv airport, which it said was expected to remain closed through the weekend.
- Arkia, an Israeli airline, has cancelled all its flights until June 14.
- Flydubai, or the Dubai Aviation Corporation, a budget carrier, said it had suspended flights to Amman, Beirut, Damascus, Iran and Israel and a number of other flights had been cancelled, rerouted or returned to their departure airports.
- Turkish Airlines, Turkey’s flag carrier, and other Turkish operators have cancelled flights to Iran, Iraq, Syria and Jordan until June 16, Turkiye’s Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said in a statement.
- Etihad Airways, one of the United Arab Emirate’s airlines, said it had cancelled two flights between Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv and delayed the departure of four others.
- Etihad and Turkish Airlines also diverted some flights to Baku, Azerbaijan, according to Heydar Aliyev International Airport.
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Pegasus Airlines, a Turkish carrier, cancelled its flights to Iran until June 19 and flights to Iraq and Jordan until June 16. The company said in a statement that it will operate flights to Lebanon only during daylight hours.
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Lufthansa, the largest airline in Germany, suspended all flights to and from Tel Aviv and Tehran until July 31, and to and from Amman, Erbil and Beirut until June 20. In a statement, the company added that it would also avoid “Iranian, Iraqi and Israeli airspace for now”.
- Air France, the country’s national carrier, suspended flights to and from Tel Aviv “until further notice” following the closure of Israeli airspace.
- Ita Airways, Italy’s flagship airline, extended the suspension of flights to Tel Aviv until July 31.
- KLM, a Dutch airline in partnership with Air France, cancelled all flights to Tel Aviv until at least July 1, reported Dutch news agency ANP.
- Ryanair, a budget Irish airline, cancelled flights to and from Tel Aviv until August 31.
- SWISS, which is owned by Lufthansa and is Switzerland’s national carrier, suspended its Tel Aviv flights until October 25 while those to Beirut will be suspended until the end of July.
- Aegean Airlines, Greece’s flag carrier, cancelled all flights to and from Tel Aviv up to and including the early morning flight on July 12, as well as all flights to and from Beirut, Amman, and Erbil through the morning arrivals of June 28.
- LOT Polish Airlines announced it will not be using Iranian airspace for flights to Asia, a spokesperson told state news agency PAP.
- Wizz Air, a Hungarian budget airline, suspended flights to Tel Aviv and re-routed flights affected by closed airspace in the region for the next 72 hours, it said in a statement through its Cyprus-based publicist.
- Tarom, Romania’s flag carrier, suspended all commercial flights to and from Tel Aviv, Beirut and Amman until June 16.
- AirBaltic, Latvia’s flag carrier, said all flights to and from Tel Aviv until June 23 had been cancelled.
- Air India, a flag carrier of the subcontinent which overflies Iran for its Europe and North American flights, said several flights were being diverted or returned to their origin, including ones from New York, Vancouver, Chicago and London.
- Aeroflot, Russia’s flagship airline, cancelled flights between Moscow and Tehran. In a statement, the airline said that flights to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha and the Maldives have been rerouted through Pakistani airspace.
- Delta Air Lines, a US airline, said it has paused flights to Tel Aviv from New York through August 31. The airline also turned back a New York–Tel Aviv flight mid-air on Thursday, according to Flightradar data.
- United Airlines, a major US airline, confirmed that Flight UAL84 to Tel Aviv returned to New York after takeoff, while a flight from Newark was also cancelled. The airline has announced it has halted operations in Israel until late August, according to Israeli media.
- Easyjet, a British low-cost airline, has suspended all flights to Tel Aviv until at least July 31, Israeli media reported.
Some countries have also closed their airspace following the attacks.
Iran’s official news agency IRNA reported that aviation authorities have shut down the country’s airspace until further notice.
Early on Friday, Iraq closed its airspace and suspended all traffic at its airports, Iraqi state media reported.
Eastern Iraq near the border with Iran contains one of the world’s busiest air corridors, with dozens of flights crossing between Europe and the Gulf, many on routes from Asia to Europe, at any single moment.
Jordan’s civil aviation authority has also said it “temporarily” closed Jordanian airspace to all flights “in anticipation of any dangers resulting from the escalation happening in the region”.
Last year, some Iranian missiles that targeted Israeli military bases flew over Jordan, which neighbours Israel and Iraq.
