Hamas attacks in Israel: many airlines have suspended their services

Air France-KLM announced the suspension of its service to Tel Aviv “until further notice” and around ten other European companies announced similar decisions.

Following the very violent attacks by Hamas against Israel, which have so far left more than 600 Israelis dead and 370 Palestinian dead, the main airlines serving Israel announced on October 7 suspensions of their international services.

Most European airlines follow in Air France-KLM’s footsteps

“In coordination with the French General Directorate of Civil Aviation and the Israeli authorities, Air France is suspending its service to Tel Aviv until further notice,” said a spokesperson for the company, which usually operates two daily flights to Tel Aviv. Transavia, the low-cost airline of the Air France-KLM group, also announced that all its flights (departing from Paris Orly and Lyon Saint Exupéry) to Tel Aviv were suspended until Monday inclusive.

For its part, Lufthansa announced that it was also canceling its flights to and from Tel Aviv until Monday inclusive due to the “security situation”. The Belgian company Brussels Airlines, a subsidiary of the Lufthansa group, announced the same decision and said it was “ready to cooperate with the authorities to organize repatriations or relief flights”. Another subsidiary of the Lufthansa group, Swiss, announced that it had suspended its flights to Tel Aviv from Saturday evening “until further notice”.

The Spanish company Iberia, for its part, announced that its low-cost subsidiary Iberia Express was “cancelling its flights to or from Tel Aviv from Saturday “due to the situation in Israel”. The Italian company ITA Airways announced on destination Tel Aviv, without specifying what would happen for the following flights. The Greek company Aegean announced on X that it had suspended its flights to and from Tel Aviv from Saturday and for 48 hours.

American companies have also suspended their services

American companies, which normally provide numerous flights to Israel (New York, Chicago, Washington DC and Miami). United, after operating another flight early Sunday, announced that it was suspending its flights and that they would remain so “until conditions allow their resumption.” Delta announced that its flights were canceled until the beginning of the week and that its representatives were “monitoring the situation to make schedule adjustments if necessary.”