Partial Resumption of Middle East Airspace Amid Ongoing Logistical Headwinds
More airlines are restoring flights to parts of the Middle East after the conflict that followed U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, but some carriers have kept suspensions in place.
Below is an update on the status of airlines’ flights, in alphabetical order:
- AEGEAN AIRLINES (AGNr.AT): Greece’s largest carrier cancelled its flights to Dubai until August 31, and to Erbil and Baghdad until September 30.
- AIRBALTIC: Flights to Dubai are cancelled until October 24.
- AIR CANADA (AC.TO): The Canadian carrier has cancelled flights to Tel Aviv and Dubai until October 24.
- AIR FRANCE-KLM (AIRF.PA): Air France has suspended its Beirut flights until August 2. KLM suspended flights to Riyadh, Dammam and Dubai until July 15, according to a statement on its website.
- CATHAY PACIFIC (0293.HK): The Hong Kong airline has postponed the resumption of its Middle East passenger and freight services. Passenger flights to Dubai and Riyadh will resume on October 25 and 26, pushed back from September 1. Its Riyadh freight service, originally planned for August 1, has also been postponed with timing under review.
- DELTA (DAL.N): 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 (FIA1S.HE): 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 (ICAG.L): 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.
The airline 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 (9201.T): Japan Airlines has suspended scheduled Tokyo-Doha flights until August 31 and Doha-Tokyo flights until September 1.
- LOT: The Polish airline plans to operate its winter route to Dubai from October and to resume operations to Beirut in its Summer 2027 schedule.
- LUFTHANSA GROUP (LHAG.DE): SWISS postponed the resumption of flights to Tel Aviv until August, and Brussels Airlines suspended operations until October 24. Lufthansa and SWISS 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. After restarting its Erbil, Beirut and Tel Aviv flights, low-cost carrier Eurowings expects to resume the remaining Middle East destinations in autumn. ITA Airways has also extended the suspension of its flights to Riyadh until July 31 and to Dubai until October 24 for operational reasons.
- NORWEGIAN AIR (NAS.OL): 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.
- SINGAPORE AIRLINES (SIAL.SI): The carrier extended its Singapore-Dubai flight suspension until October 24, while adding services on the Singapore-London Gatwick and Singapore-Melbourne routes from late March until October 24 to meet higher demand.
- TURKISH AIRLINES (THYAO.IS): SunExpress, Turkish Airlines’ joint venture with Lufthansa, plans to resume its Antalya-Dubai route later on July 15.
- WIZZ AIR (WIZZ.L): The low-cost airline has suspended flights to Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Amman from mainland European destinations until mid-September.
Compiled by Josephine Mason, Jamie Freed, Elviira Luoma, Tiago Brandao, Agnieszka Olenska, Bernadette Hogg, Boleslaw Lasocki, Alexander Klyve Gudbrandsen, Romolo Tosiani and Julie Zhu; editing by Matt Scuffham, Louise Heavens, Jan Harvey, Philippa Fletcher
This article was first reported by Reuters
