Major airlines have been forced to cancel and re-direct flights to Israel in the wake of Iran’s missile and drone attack on Saturday.
EasyJet has temporarily stopped flights to and from Tel Aviv until this Sunday, while Wizz Air has said it will resume on Tuesday after cancelling services from Saturday until Monday.
The cancellations came after Iran fired 360 missiles and drones at Israeli territory in retaliation for an attack two weeks ago by the Israel Defense Forces on the Iranian embassy in Syria, which killed a number of senior Iranian commanders.
In a statement easyJet said: “Due to the evolving situation in Israel, easyJet has taken the decision to temporarily pause operations to and from Tel Aviv until 21 April. The safety and security of our passengers and crew is always easyJet’s highest priority.”
Wizz Air said it would resume journeys to Israel on Tuesday but warned that passengers may experience schedule changes and said it was closely monitoring the situation.
A number of other international carriers including Air Canada, Delta, Iberia and Lufthansa also suspended flights to Tel Aviv on Sunday and Monday.
Wizz Air and easyJet had only recently restarted flights to Israel, having paused them after the attacks by Hamas on 7 October.
On Sunday the European Commission and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency warned carriers to exercise caution when flying in Israeli and Iranian airspace, while recommending not to conduct flights below a certain altitude above Iraq and Syria.
British Airways confirmed it had run a service to Tel Aviv on Monday morning but said it was keeping the situation under review. The airline restarted flights to Tel Aviv earlier this month but had reduced the service to only four flights a week, with crew changes at Larnaca in Cyprus, so staff do not have to spend the night in Israel.
Virgin Atlantic had already suspended flights to Tel Aviv until September before the latest attacks, but the carrier said it had since changed some of its routes to avoid Iranian and Israeli airspace.
It said: “We are not currently overflying Iraq, Iran or Israel, but we continue to monitor the situation for any potential impact on our operations.
“The safety and security of our customers and people is paramount and always will be. We apologise for any inconvenience caused to customers by slightly longer flight times.”
Qatar Airways said it had resumed flights to Iran, flying to Tehran, Mashhad, Shiraz and Isfahan. It said: “The safety and security of our passengers remains our top priority.” Lufthansa has cancelled flights to Beirut and Tehran and said they would remain suspended until at least Thursday.