Following Hamas, the Palestinian militant group, launched a surprise attack against Israel, and major airlines canceled dozens of flights to Tel Aviv this weekend.
Air France, American Airlines, Emirates, Lufthansa, and Ryanair are among those drawing flights to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport.
Airport authorities, however, did not prevent commercial air links with Israel’s second international airport at Eilat, a tourist destination on the Red Sea.
And Israeli flag carrier El Al said on Sunday that it was retaining its Tel Aviv flights for now, though some flights operated by foreign partners had been canceled.
El Al said it was working “by the instructions of the Israeli security forces”, with all flights now exiting only from Terminal Three at Ben Gurion.
Like most other airlines, it said clients could change their tickets without any charge.
In Athens, the foreign ministry said it was working to repatriate 149 Greek tourists from Israel, and 81 of them were due to come back late on Sunday on an El Al flight.
After Saturday witnessed a list of major carriers cancelling flights Spain’s AENA airports operator told AFP four of nine flights scheduled to Tel Aviv on Sunday had been cancelled, two from Madrid and two from Barcelona.
The operator said, another nine flights, from Tel Aviv to airports in Spain, have so far been unaffected.
Spain’s Air Europa said it had canceled its two flights scheduled between Madrid and Tel Aviv, while Iberia Express, the low-cost arm of national carrier Iberia, went ahead with a Madrid-Tel Aviv flight after suspending two on Saturday.
The Barcelona-based low-cost airline Vueling said that shown the condition in Israel, “flights to/from Tel Aviv are impacted and experiencing delays”.
A spokesman for Germany’s Lufthansa on Saturday quoted “the recent security situation” to say it was canceling all flights to and from Tel Aviv “up until and including Monday”.
Air France said it had stopped Tel Aviv flights “until further notice”, and the Air France-KLM group’s low-cost carrier Transavia said it was canceling all flights from Paris and Lyon to Tel Aviv up to and including Monday.
Italy’s flag carrier ITA Airways canceled its flight until Sunday morning at the earliest “to protect the safety of passengers and crew”, while Polish carrier LOT suspended its flights from the Polish capital on Saturday.
Other airlines suspending flights included Aegean, Swiss, Austrian Airlines, Wizz Air, and Air Canada.
