Airlines suspend flights to the Middle East

European, American and Asian airlines have suspended or reduced flights to the Middle East due to the conflict between Israel and Iran and the US bombings against the latter country. Washington's entry into the conflict has raised fears of reprisals against US interests in the region, particularly military bases in the Gulf monarchies.

Air France flights to Saudi Arabia and the UAE have been suspended until at least Tuesday. The French airline has extended the suspension of its Paris-Tel Aviv route until July 14. Flights to Beirut and Tel Aviv operated by Transavia, the low-cost carrier of the Air France-KLM group, have also been suspended until June 30 and September 7.

British Airways, which cancelled flights between London's Heathrow Airport and Dubai and Doha airports on Sunday after the US bombed nuclear facilities in Iran, said it intended to operate its routes "as normal" from now on.

On 18 June, the German group Lufthansa – which also owns Swiss, Austrian and ITA – announced that it was extending the suspension of its flights to the Middle East, namely to Beirut, until 30 June, and to Amman and Erbil (Iraq) until 11 July. Services to Tel Aviv and Tehran were suspended until at least 31 July, with the group specifying that its aircraft would not use the airspace of countries affected by the conflict.

For its part, the Greek carrier Aegean Airlines has cancelled all its flights to Tel Aviv until 12 July, as well as all its routes to Beirut, Amman and Erbil (Iraq) until 28 June. In Turkey, Pegasus has announced the suspension of all its flights to Iran until 30 July and to Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon until 30 June.

As for Turkish Airlines, according to the Istanbul airport website, the airline has been serving Amman for the past few days. However, all flights to Baghdad and Damascus remain cancelled and there are no flights available to Tehran until July 1.

In North America, United Airlines warned customers that flights scheduled to and from Dubai between June 18 and July 3 may be “affected” and offered customers a free ticket exchange under certain conditions due to “unrest in the Middle East.” The US carrier had taken the same measure for Tel Aviv from June 13 to August 1, with the option to choose another destination.

Air Canada, which had “temporarily suspended” its daily direct service to Dubai from Toronto since June 18, has warned that it may have to extend this suspension. Travel with a stopover in Europe via a third-party airline remains possible.

American Airlines, for its part, authorized its customers to change their reservations to Doha free of charge for trips initially scheduled from June 19 to July 20.

In Asia, Singapore Airlines announced the cancellation of eight flights to Dubai, two per day, from Sunday to Wednesday. “The situation remains fluid and other (airline) flights between Singapore and Dubai may be affected,” the carrier warned.