Lufthansa has already suspended night flights to and from Beirut (Representational)
Flights to and from Beirut airport were canceled or postponed on Monday as tensions rose between Israel and the armed political group Hezbollah after an attack in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights killed 12 children and teenagers. .
Air France informed this Monday that due to the security situation at the destination, it will suspend flights between Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Beirut for the 29th and 30th of July 2024.
“Air France is monitoring the situation in Lebanon in real time,” the airline said.
Lufthansa, Swiss and Eurowings of the Lufthansa Group have decided to suspend their flights to and from Beirut until August 5 inclusive due to current developments in the Middle East, a group spokesperson said.
Lebanon’s Middle East Airlines (MEA) said the disruptions to its schedule were related to insurance risks.
The rocket attack on the Golan Heights on Saturday raised concerns that Israel and the Iran-backed group could wage a full-scale war.
Israel’s security cabinet on Sunday authorized the government to respond to the attack. Hezbollah has denied any responsibility for the attack, the deadliest in Israel or Israeli-annexed territory since the Hamas attack on Oct. 7 triggered the war in Gaza that has since spread across multiple fronts.
Beirut airport’s flight information board and flight tracking website Flightradar24 show that Turkish Airlines also canceled two flights overnight on Sunday.
Turkey-based budget carrier SunExpress, Turkish Airlines subsidiary AJet, Greek carrier Aegean Airlines, Ethiopian Air and MEA have also canceled flights scheduled to land in Beirut on Monday, Flightradar24 shows.
The airlines did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport is the only airport in Lebanon. It was the target of the country’s civil war and previous fighting with Israel, including the last war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006.
On Sunday, the MEA said it had delayed the departure of some flights that were supposed to land in Beirut overnight. Additional delays to flights landing on Monday were then announced due to “technical reasons related to the distribution of insurance risks for aircraft between Lebanon and other destinations”, the MEA said.
Hezbollah and the Israeli military have increased cross-border firefights since the start of the war in Gaza. The conflict disrupted flights and shipping across the region, including during tit-for-tat drone and missile attacks between Israel and Iran in April.
Lufthansa already suspended night flights to and from Beirut in July due to “current developments” in the Middle East.
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