(Credit: Daniel Roland/AFP/Getty Images)
Several online news sites including the Swiss Finanzen.ch and XM Global (based in Belize), citing Reuters, announced late in the morning that the Lufthansa group had extended by two weeks, until Oct. 15, 2024, the suspension of its connection with Beirut airport, citing an "update of the flight schedule" of the German national airline, in a context of tensions in the Middle East.
But in the latest update of its summary of the various changes made by the airlines, Reuters said that the flights of the German group's companies as well as other carriers – still planned to suspend their flights until Sept. 30, as announced a few weeks ago. This information is also on the website of the German company as well as on the latest notification concerning it on the booking terminals of Lebanese travel agencies, according to the president of their association Jean Abboud.
Swiss International Air Lines, which is also part of the Lufthansa group, said separately that it had suspended its flights to Beirut until the end of October, specifies Reuters.
But on Lufthansa's and Swiss Air's websites, it is possible to book tickets to travel from Beirut to Frankfurt from Oct. 16 and 17. The airline's customer service has not yet responded to L'Orient-Le Jour's calls seeking clarification on this point.
Lufthansa Group was one of the first airlines to suspend flights to and from Beirut and for the longest time since the start of the Gaza war and its spillover into southern Lebanon on Oct. 8, 2023. The group recently resumed its service to Tel Aviv, which it had suspended in the wake of the latest round of rising tensions in the region at the end of July.
This article originally appeared in French in L'Orient-Le Jour.