Lufthansa Group, which consists of Lufthansa Airlines, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Swiss, and Eurowings, has announced that it will resume its flights to and from Israel from September 5, after more than a month’s suspension. The group operates many flights to various destinations in Europe.
After the deadly rocket attack on Majdal Shams on July 27, in which a rocket fired by Hezbollah killed twelve children and teenagers in the Golan Heights town, international airlines, fearful of the consequences of Israeli reprisals, began to cancel flights to Israel. Lufthansa Group was the first to announce changes, and began with cancelling flights to Israel from Frankfurt and Munich, and from Israel to Frankfurt. It gradually extended the cancellations to whole days, for over a month. Among other airlines that followed suit were United Airlines, Delta, Ryanair, and easyJet, and they have still not restored service.
Lufthansa Group also cancelled flights to other destinations in the region, among them Beirut, Teheran, Amman, and Erbil. The suspension of flights to Beirut is currently scheduled to last until September 30. Flights to Amman and Erbil were resumed on August 27. As for flights to and from Tel Aviv, Lufthansa said that it was still not known whether the group would return to the scope of its activity before the cancellations.
Lufthansa Group is the largest aviation group in Europe, and belongs to the largest aviation alliance in the world, Star Alliance. Like other international airlines, the group halted flights to Israel after October 7, but it was one of the first to resume them in January 2024. Apart from a short stoppage after the Iranian missile and UAV attack on Israel on April 13, airlines in the group continued to fly to Israel until the recent suspension.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on September 3, 2024.
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