ME tensions force airline rerouting and cancellations
Dhaka: Following Israel’s missile strike on Iran on Friday, June 13, air traffic across the Middle East has faced significant disruption. Several airlines have suspended operations in the region, with no clear timeline for the resumption of normal services.
According to flight-tracking service Flightradar24, commercial air traffic was largely absent from the skies over Iran, Israel, Jordan, Syria, and Iraq on Friday. In response to the strike, Iran, Israel, and Jordan formally closed their airspace.
Multiple international flights were cancelled or diverted mid-air, such as a Delta Air Lines flight from John F. Kennedy Airport in New York to Tel Aviv, which landed back in New York after having spent eight hours in the air.
Around 650 flights to and from Europe were canceled on Friday according to Eurocontrol and some 1,800 flights across the continent were affected in some way by the attack.
Soon after the Israeli strike on Iran, aircraft started leaving Israel. Israeli carriers El Al, Israir, and Arkia have evacuated at least part of their planes out of fear for retaliation, many of which are now grounded in Cyprus.
The Israeli strike prompted many carriers to suspend their flights to Iran and Israel. For example, Lufthansa suspended its flights to Tehran and Tel Aviv until 31 July, while its flights to Amman, Beirut, and Erbil are cancelled until 20 June.
On Sunday 15 June, Emirates announced that its flights to Jordan (Amman) and Lebanon (Beirut) would be suspended until and including Sunday 22 June 2025. Flights to Iran (Tehran) and Iraq (Baghdad and Basra) are cancelled until and including Monday 30 June 2025.
In a statement to CNN, Air France said it had suspended flights to Tel Aviv until further notice, while KLM will not fly to Tel Aviv until 1 July. Delta Air Lines has paused its flights to Tel Aviv from New York through 31 August in response to the conflict.
Qatar Airways has “temporarily cancelled flights to Iran and Iraq” the airline said in a statement on X. Flights to Syria were halted as well but resumed over the weekend. Other airlines, too, have changed their flight schedules following the conflict.
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