One of the halls of Beirut International Airport. Photo credit: Mohammad Yassine.
While southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley have been undergoing a large-scale Israeli military operation since Monday morning, resulting in at least 274 deaths and 1,024 injuries so far, according to the latest figures from the Ministry of Health, the director of civil aviation at Beirut International Airport (AIB), Fadi Hassan, told L'OLJ that some airlines have suspended their flights due to rising tensions, but most continue to serve Beirut normally.
Among the airlines that suspended their flights on Monday (see our list below) are Tarom Airlines, Kuwait Airways, Saudia Airlines, Lufthansa, Sun Express, Swissair, Air France, Transavia, Turkish Airlines, Pegasus Airlines, Cyprus Airways, and Royal Jordanian.
Decisions for the coming days are still pending.
The president of the Association of Travel and Tourism Agency Owners, Jean Abboud, mentioned on Monday "a 30-40% decline" in a statement reported by the National News Agency (NNA). "Traffic at AIB has seen a significant drop in attendance in recent days, and about 14 airlines have interrupted their flights to and from Lebanon due to security and military developments on the Lebanese scene," he said.
Some airlines had already announced the suspension of their flights to Beirut since last week's escalation, marked on Tuesday and Wednesday by two attacks on electronic equipment belonging to Hezbollah members, resulting in at least 39 deaths and nearly 3,000 injuries, as well as an Israeli strike on Friday in the southern suburbs of Beirut targeting Hezbollah commanders, with 54 deaths and over 66 injuries so far and 5 people still missing.
The Israeli operation on Monday could lead to further flight suspensions. "The situation evolves daily, and flights are suspended or operated based on developments and security information," observed Jean Abboud.
Here are the details of some airlines:
- Tarom Airlines, the Romanian airline, has suspended its flights until October 4.
- The German airline Sundair extended the suspension of its Berlin to Beirut flights until Monday, September 30, due to the security situation in Lebanon, sources at the airport and a European travel agency told L’Orient-Le Jour.
- Lufthansa has maintained the suspension of its flights to Beirut until October 26.
- Pegasus Airlines canceled its four scheduled flights on Tuesday, September 24.
- Air France has canceled all its flights to and from Beirut Airport until October 1, according to a local travel agent. This information could not be verified with Air-France KLM's press service.
- Qatar Airways, which usually serves Beirut three times a day, is currently maintaining the cancellation of flight QR419 at 6:30 PM to Doha. The other two daily flights operate normally.
Many airlines have reduced their flights from three to two per day. These include Etihad, Jordanian, Qatari, Egypt Air, and Emirates, while Ethiopian Airlines has reduced its flights to one instead of three, according to Jean Abboud. He also notes that Flydubai and Air Arabia continue to serve Lebanon.
As for the local airline, Middle East Airlines, it continues to operate normally and "sets up additional flights to fill the gap when other airlines stop coming to Lebanon," affirms the president of the association.
