Airlines split over safety risk of Israel flights

Airlines wrestled with the safety risk of evacuation operations in Israel today, with Norwegian Air and Dutch KLM cancelling flights while Air France was going ahead with a special flight chartered by the French Foreign Ministry, Reuters reports.

Norwegian Air NAS.OL said it had cancelled a planned evacuation flight from Tel Aviv to Oslo due to a lack of insurance cover.

Dutch airline KLM said late yesterday it had retracted an offer to the Dutch government for a flight to Israel to take Dutch citizens out of the country, citing safety concerns.

But sister airline Air France was pressing ahead with a flight from Paris today, a spokesperson said. The two airlines are owned by the same parent group Air France-KLM AIRF.PA but are operationally separate. No explanation was available for the contrasting decisions.

KLM said “the most recent information on the situation in Israel indicates it is not sufficiently possible for a civilian airline to conduct a flight that’s safe for crew and passengers.”The Dutch Foreign Ministry said it would send a military plane to Israel today instead.

Norwegian Air had been due to fly Norwegian and other Nordic citizens stranded in Israel out of the country this evening. The flight had already been postponed from yesterday.”The reason is that the insurance company that Norwegian and a number of other airlines use no longer cover flights to Tel Aviv,” Norwegian said in a statement.

Airlines have faced warnings over insurance cover in the wake of the weekend attacks on Israel by Palestinian resistance fighters.

Norwegian said it was working with Norway’s Foreign Ministry to find other solutions. On Tuesday it cancelled regular flights from the Swedish and Danish capitals to Tel Aviv until 19 December.

Germany’s Lufthansa LHAG.DE was sticking to its plans for evacuation flights today and tomorrow.

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