Air France to resume flights to Tel Aviv, while Lufthansa pushes off return

Air France said Monday that it would resume daily nonstop flight services to Tel Aviv from Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport starting the next day, while the Lufthansa group of carriers said it would extend its suspension until mid-June.

The two carrier groups were among several international airlines to suspend Tel Aviv flights following the May 4 strike, when Israeli air defenses failed to intercept an incoming Houthi ballistic missile from Yemen that impacted near an access road several hundred yards from the control tower at the main Terminal 3.

Since then, the majority of foreign airlines have been extending the cancellation of flights to and from the country, from a few days to a couple of weeks, leaving many Israelis stranded overseas. Among the very few foreign airlines that have recently resumed non-stop flight services to Israel are US carrier Delta, Hungarian low-cost carrier Wizz Air, and Greece’s Aegean Airlines.

The French carrier said it will operate a daily non-stop flight to Tel Aviv on the B777-300 aircraft. At the same time, Air France cautioned that it is “constantly monitoring developments in the geopolitical situation in the region to ensure the highest level of flight safety and security.”

“We are happy and excited to resume regular Air France flight services on the route to Israel,” said Air France Israel manager Alon Netah. “With the resumption of Air France flights on the route to Tel Aviv, Israeli passengers can travel via Charles de Gaulle Airport to all Air France destinations in the world, just in time for the holiday of Shavuot.”

However, industry experts cautioned that the situation was still fluid.

“While we can commend Air France for resuming their flight route to Israel, the return needs to be treated with caution, as we cannot trust that they will stay because of the lack of consistency in services and as there are only very few foreign airlines that have restarted their operations to Israel,” Mark Feldman, CEO of Ziontours Jerusalem, told The Times of Israel.

Meanwhile, the Lufthansa group — whose carriers also include SWISS, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, and Eurowings — announced Monday it was extending the cancelation of flight services to and from Tel Aviv at least until June 15, from the previously announced date of June 8. Last week, UK carrier British Airways pushed off the return of flight services from London to Tel Aviv until July 31.

Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary said May 19 that the low-cost carrier was “losing patience” with security disruptions at Ben Gurion Airport, and could consider moving aircraft to service alternative destinations.

Since the war broke out with Hamas in the Gaza Strip following the Palestinian terror group’s October 7, 2023, campaign of slaughter and mass abduction in southern Israel, foreign airlines have repeatedly canceled and resumed their flights to and from Israel.

The ongoing situation — which included rocket and drone attacks from Lebanon, Gaza, Yemen, and Iraq, plus two large missile barrages from Iran — has led to Israeli airlines, chiefly El Al, operating at a near-monopoly on some routes, setting sky-high ticket prices.

“We have seen re-bookings and bookings with El Al going through the roof,” Feldman said.