The European Commission and European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) last night discussed and reaffirmed the recommendation to airlines not to fly to Israel until October 31. After the discussions, Air France announced that it is extending its cancelation of Israel flights until October 13 and Wizz Air extended its cancelations until October 15. Wizz Air said, "The company is in contact with all its customers affected and continues to closely follow the situation."
The EU recommendation was made shortly after the assassination of Hezbollah secretary general Hassan Nasrallah due to concerns about the military confrontation between Israel and Hezbollah.
At the time EASA wrote, "An overall intensification of air strikes and degradation in the security situation has been noted, impacting the safety of airspace over Israel and Lebanon. In that context, the European Commission and EASA have decided to issue CZIBs recommending not to operate within the airspaces of Lebanon and Israel at all flight levels."
Thus in its recommendation the EASA created symmetry between Beirut and Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport, despite the advanced air defense systems protecting Israel’s main international airport.
Even when Israel airspace has been closed, such as during the Iranian missile attacks in April and last week, Ben Gurion airport has not been hit and flights resumed operating within several hours of the attacks.
Israel’s Civil Aviation Authority met with EASA last week in efforts to reach an agreement to lift its recommendation but to no avail. EASA’s recommendation came in the midst of a wave of flight cancelations, and led to many European airlines that were vacillating, to suspend flights to Israel.
Among the carriers that announced flight cancelations at the time were Wizz Air and Blue Bird, companies that have maintained relative stability in their Israel operations throughout the recent period. Air Europe also cancelled flights in the wake of the recommendation and shows no signs of resuming them. However, Cypriot airline TUS Airways, which cancelled flights after the recommendation has resumed flights to Israel, in part because it is partly owned by Israelis who put pressure on to recommence the flights.
Who has canceled and who has resumed
Azerbaijan Airlines has canceled until October 12.
Air France, and Aegean have canceled until October 13.
Wizz Air, Air Baltic and Air Europe have canceled until October 15.
Vueling and ITA have canceled until October 26.
British Airways and LOT have canceled until October 27.
Lufthansa Group including Swiss, Austrian Airlines, Brussels, and Eurowings, as well as Delta, Iberia Express and Bulgaria Air have canceled until October 31.
Other airlines including easyJet, Ryanair, KLM, United, American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Air India and Turkish Airlines have announced long-term cancelations.
Airlines still flying to and from Israel include El Al, Israir, Arkia, Etihad, flyDubai, TUS, Smartwings, Ethiopian Airlines, Air Seychelles, Hainan, Uzbekistan Airlines, Azimuth, Georgia Airlines, Red Wings, Tarom, HiSky and Bees Airlines.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on October 8, 2024.
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