Beirut-based airline changes more flight schedules amid reprisal worries

Beirut based Middle East Airlines has announced it is delaying several of its flights to and from Lebanon, a move widely seen as related to preparations for a possible expansion of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

As with six affected flights announced earlier, MEA says it is not canceling the flights but merely delaying them, in some cases by as little as an hour. The move, it says, is “due to technical reasons related to the distribution of insurance risks for aircraft between Lebanon and other destinations.”

According to flight tracking website Flightradar24, Rafic Hariri airport is experiencing average delays of over 400 minutes for departures and over 150 minutes for arrivals. There have also been a smattering of cancellations, but most flights schedules remain intact.

Rafic Hariri Airport, Lebanon’s only international facility, was hit early in the last war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006.

However, the head of MEA said earlier he was not worried about a repeat sortie.

“We’re not afraid that the airport will be hit, nor do we have any information in that regard. If we were scared, we wouldn’t have left any flights (operating),” MEA chairman Mohamad El-Hout told local broadcaster Al-Jadeed.

Lufthansa and Lufthansa’s Eurowings have cancelled three flights to Beirut scheduled for Monday afternoon, according to the information board at the airport and Flightradar24.

Turkish Airlines also cancelled two flights overnight on Sunday and Turkey-based budget carrier SunExpress, Turkish Airlines subsidiary AJet, Greek carrier Aegean Airlines, Ethiopian Air and MEA have also cancelled flights scheduled to land in Beirut on Monday, Flightradar24 shows.

The airlines do not immediately respond to requests for comment.