Air France and its low-cost subsidiary Transavia announced on Monday that they would extend the suspension of their flights to Tel Aviv until October 15 inclusive and to Beirut until October 26 inclusive. “due to the security situation”.
“The resumption of operations will remain subject to an assessment of the situation on site”specified in press releases the airlines of the Air France-KLM group, which had previously indicated that they would suspend services to Israel and Lebanon at least until October 8.
Israel on Monday commemorated the first anniversary of the deadliest attack in its history, with its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promising that the wars against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon would prevent Israel from reliving the violence of October 7, 2023.
The war in Gaza and Lebanon is accompanied by an escalation between Israel and Iran, ally of Hamas and Hezbollah, while Israel threatened to retaliate after the firing of 200 missiles on October 1 against its territory, causing fear a conflagration in the Middle East.
At Air France, the routes concerned are those between Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle and Beirut on the one hand, and Tel-Aviv on the other. Transavia France, for its part, usually serves Beirut from Paris-Orly, Lyon and Marseille, and Tel Aviv from Paris-Orly and Lyon.
“Concerned customers will be notified individually and postponement or refund solutions will be offered to them”underlined Air France.
KLM, the Dutch company, went further at the beginning of October by suspending all services to Israel until the end of the year, while the German Lufthansa announced that it would extend the suspension of its flights to Beirut until November 30, Tel Aviv until October 31 and maintained the interruption of its connections to Tehran until October 14 inclusive.