A plane flies near the southern suburbs of Beirut on Aug. 7, 2024. (Credit: Joseph Eid/AFP)
The suspension of Air France and Transavia flights to Beirut has been extended again until Sunday, Aug. 11 inclusive, due to the geopolitical situation in Lebanon, the airlines confirmed to AFP on Thursday.
The move comes amid growing fears of a regional escalation by Iran and its allies following the assassination of Hezbollah military leader Fouad Shukur and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
The resumption of operations - interrupted since July 29 due to the "security situation in the Middle East" - "will be subject to a new evaluation of the situation on the ground", indicates a press release published Wednesday evening on the Air France website.
This suspension concerns "both directions" of flights between Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Beirut, Air France told AFP."Air France reiterates that the safety of its customers and crews is its absolute priority," reads the press release, in which the company assures that it is implementing "commercial measures" accordingly.
On the other hand, Air France "continues to operate normally" between France and Tel Aviv, the company said, while other international groups such as the German Lufthansa and the Italian ITA announced last week that they were suspending their rotations to Tel Aviv for several days.
Several foreign airlines have decided to temporarily suspend their services to Beirut, sometimes under pressure from their insurers. Lufthansa, Swiss and Eurowings, as well as the German charter company Sundair, have suspended their connections to Beirut until Aug. 12. Kuwait Airlines has suspended its flights since Monday until further notice. Aegean Airlines has in principle suspended its Athens-Beirut flights until Aug. 15.
Other airlines have continued to serve Beirut by adjusting or suspending some flights, such as Cyprus Airways, Turkish Airlines, Emirates, Qatar Airways, Flydubai or Pegasus. Airlines have done the same with Tel Aviv airport, suspending some flights.
Middle East Airlines has adjusted its flight schedule and continues to operate around 40 flights per day, departing and arriving. On Tuesday, it published the changes for the period up to Aug. 8.
This article originally appeared in French in L'Orient-Le Jour.