Lufthansa cancels flights to Israel

 

MUNICH – The German airline Lufthansa cancelled an onward flight from Cyprus to Tel Aviv on Wednesday night, for security reasons.

The A321 aircraft had previously landed at Larnaca Airport from Munich as planned in order to fly to Israel with a new crew, according to a company spokesman.

However, that leg of the flight was cancelled because Iran had announced it was temporarily closing its airspace in the early hours of Thursday morning. Lufthansa therefore did not consider the safety of flights to Tel Aviv to be guaranteed.

Another flight, operated by Group subsidiary Austrian, had to divert to Sofia.

The security situation in the Middle East is even more tense than it already was, following the killing of two important opponents of Israel. One of the attacks, for which Iran blames Israel, took place in the Iranian capital Tehran. The Iranian leadership is threatening to retaliate.

The Lufthansa spokesman explained that there are currently no more restrictions on flight operations to Tel Aviv. Following the cancellation of the onward flight from Cyprus to Israel, 23 of the 190 passengers did not want to fly back to Munich and chose to remain on the Mediterranean island.

Lufthansa introduced stopovers in Cyprus to avoid overnight crew stays in an area of conflict and tension.