Airlines Restore Some Middle East Flights, But Regional Disruption Persists
Current Status of Airline Operations in the Middle East
June 10 (Reuters) - Airlines are gradually restoring some flights to the Middle East as regional carriers rebuild schedules after war-related disruption, though the conflict continues to disrupt wider traffic flows.
Middle Eastern airlines have added capacity after severe disruption linked to the Iran war, while many carriers outside the Gulf are still diverting Europe-Asia flights to avoid the region.
Below is the latest on flights, in alphabetical order:
Airlines and Their Flight Status Updates
AEGEAN AIRLINES
Flight Cancellations and Suspensions
Greece's largest carrier cancelled flights from Thessaloniki to Tel Aviv until June 26. Flights to Dubai are cancelled until August 31, and to Erbil and Baghdad until July 2.
AIRBALTIC
Flight Cancellations and Suspensions
Latvia's airBaltic has cancelled flights to Tel Aviv until June 28 and flights to Dubai until October 24.
AIR CANADA
Flight Cancellations and Suspensions
The Canadian carrier has cancelled flights to Tel Aviv and Dubai until October 24.
AIR EUROPA
Flight Cancellations and Suspensions
The Spanish airline has cancelled flights to Tel Aviv until June 28.
AIR FRANCE-KLM
Flight Cancellations and Suspensions
Air France has suspended its Tel Aviv flights until June 21, and flights to Beirut and Dubai until June 24.
KLM suspended flights to Riyadh and Dammam until July 26 and to Dubai until August 2.
CATHAY PACIFIC
Flight Cancellations and Suspensions
The Hong Kong airline has suspended flights to Dubai and Riyadh until August 31.
DELTA
Flight Cancellations and Suspensions
The U.S. carrier has suspended services for the Atlanta-Tel Aviv route through December 18. It plans to resume New York-JFK to Tel Aviv flights on September 6, while the launch of its Boston-Tel Aviv route, planned for late October, has been delayed until further notice.
FINNAIR
Flight Cancellations and Suspensions
The Finnish carrier has cancelled its Doha flights until October 2, while continuing to avoid the airspace of Iraq, Iran, Syria and Israel. It will restart Dubai flights, which it operates only in the winter season, in October.
IAG
Flight Cancellations and Suspensions
IAG-owned British Airways delayed the resumption of its flights to Doha until August 1 and to Riyadh until August 8. Flights to Dubai, Tel Aviv, Bahrain and Amman are paused until the end of the summer season and are scheduled to resume on October 25. It plans to reduce services to Dubai, Doha, Riyadh and Tel Aviv to one daily flight when they resume, while dropping Jeddah as a destination.
JAPAN AIRLINES
Flight Cancellations and Suspensions
Japan Airlines has suspended scheduled Tokyo-Doha flights until July 31 and Doha-Tokyo flights until August 1.
LOT
Flight Cancellations and Suspensions
The Polish airline has cancelled flights to Riyadh until June 30 and to Beirut until June 27. LOT plans to operate its winter route to Dubai from October.
LUFTHANSA GROUP
Flight Cancellations and Suspensions
Lufthansa plans to resume flights to Tel Aviv as early as July 1, while ITA Airways confirmed it would resume them from July 1. SWISS postponed the resumption of flights until August and Brussels Airlines suspended operations until October 24.
Lufthansa, SWISS and ITA Airways will continue their suspension of Dubai flights until September 13.
Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines suspended flights to Abu Dhabi, Amman, Beirut, Dammam, Riyadh, Erbil, Muscat and Tehran until October 24.
Low-cost carrier Eurowings suspended flights to Tel Aviv until July 9, to Beirut until June 12, to Erbil until June 22 and to Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Amman until October 24.
ITA Airways has also extended the suspension of its flights to Riyadh until June 30.
MALAYSIA AIRLINES
Flight Resumptions
The Malaysian carrier will resume limited services to Doha from July 2.
NORWEGIAN AIR
Flight Cancellations and Suspensions
The low-cost airline has pushed back planned launches of its Tel Aviv and Beirut services indefinitely, and no new start dates have been decided.
QANTAS
Flight Additions and Schedule Updates
Australia's flag carrier is adding flights to Rome and Paris to meet an upswing in demand for European routes. Flights to Paris will increase to five return flights per week from three and the Perth-Singapore service will increase from daily to 10 a week. An updated schedule will come into effect progressively for flights from mid-April and run until late July.
ROYAL AIR MAROC
Flight Cancellations and Suspensions
The Moroccan carrier said flights to Doha were cancelled until June 30.
SINGAPORE AIRLINES
Flight Cancellations and Service Additions
The carrier extended its Singapore-Dubai flight suspension until August 2, while adding services on the Singapore-London Gatwick and Singapore-Melbourne routes from late March until October 24 to meet higher demand.
TURKISH AIRLINES
Flight Cancellations and Suspensions
SunExpress, Turkish Airlines' joint venture with Lufthansa, has cancelled flights to Dubai until June 30 and to Bahrain, Beirut and Erbil until July 14.
WIZZ AIR
Flight Cancellations and Suspensions
The low-cost airline suspended flights to Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Amman from mainland European destinations until mid-September.
Article Compilation and Editing
(Compiled by Josephine Mason, Jamie Freed, Elviira Luoma, Tiago Brandao, Agnieszka Olenska, Bernadette Hogg, Boleslaw Lasocki, Alexander Klyve Gudbrandsen and Romolo Tosiani. Editing by Matt Scuffham, Alexander Smith, Susan Fenton, Milla Nissi-Prussak, Jonathan Ananda and Joe Bavier)
