Some airlines resume flights to Israel after cancellations amid Hezbollah clash
Air France and Aegean restart Tel Aviv flights; Corendon, Etihad and Wizz say they plan to return, but unclear when; Royal Jordanian resumes Beirut service
Air France, Aegean, and several other airlines will resume their flights to Tel Aviv and Beirut on Tuesday after a two-day halt following Israel’s preemptive strike on Hezbollah Sunday and the terror group’s subsequent barrage of rockets and drones at Israel.
As a consequence of the travel chaos, thousands of Israelis found themselves stranded abroad, trying to find a way home.
Air France, which had suspended its Sunday and Monday flights to Tel Aviv and Beirut because of the heightened tensions in the region, will resume flying to Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport on Tuesday, the airline announced.
The French carrier’s low-cost subsidiary Transavia will also resume services to both destinations, it said in a statement to AFP.
Aegean Airlines, which canceled flights on Sunday, will also return starting Tuesday.
Etihad Airways, Wizz Air and Corendon Airlines have all announced they plan to restore flights in and out of Israel, Channel 12 reported Tuesday, but it was not immediately clear when the airlines would resume service.
Those airlines were among the few still flying to Israel, after other major airlines canceled flights to the country, with some pausing until September or even — as with Delta — till November.
Many carriers never resumed flying to Israel after halting flights in the wake of the Hamas terror group’s October 7 attack last year, when thousands of terrorists killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages, starting the ongoing war in Gaza.
Airlines also canceled flights to Beirut on Sunday, as Israel exchanged fire with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon.
Air France, as it announced a return to Tel Aviv, did not indicate that it was also resuming service to Lebanon, which it had already halted flights to between July 29 and August 15, while maintaining service to Israel.
Jordan’s flag carrier Royal Jordanian, meanwhile, was set to resume flights to Beirut starting on Tuesday morning after briefly suspending them on Sunday, Jordan’s state news agency reported.
A number of airlines had already announced flight suspensions or cancellations to Beirut in recent weeks, with some later resuming services.
Since October 8, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis, with the group saying it is doing so to support Gaza amid the war there.
So far, the skirmishes have resulted in 26 civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of 20 IDF soldiers and reservists. There have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.
Hezbollah has named 430 members who have been killed by Israel during the ongoing skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon but some also in Syria. In Lebanon, another 73 operatives from other terror groups, a Lebanese soldier, and dozens of civilians have been killed.
