Airlines extend flight suspensions to Middle East 

Germany’s Lufthansa Group announced yesterday an extension of its decision to avoid Iraqi and Iranian airspace until 21 August, amid escalating tensions in the Middle East.

The company confirmed in a press statement that it is also extending the suspension of flights to Tel Aviv, Tehran, Beirut, Amman and Erbil until the same date. The group attributed its decision to its “current security analysis” of the Middle East.

Earlier yesterday, Air France and its subsidiary Transavia France also confirmed the extension of the suspension of their flights to the Lebanese capital, Beirut, until tomorrow, due to the geopolitical situation in Lebanon.

Several airlines have repeatedly suspended flights to the Middle East since the outbreak of Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip on 7 October 2023.

However, suspensions have intensified since the assassination of Hamas’s political bureau chief, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran on 31 July, and Hezbollah’s military commander, Fuad Shukr, in an Israeli air strike targeting the southern suburbs of Beirut on a day earlier.

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