Following Israel's attack on Iran, airlines have begun avoiding the region's airspace.
Several carriers rerouted or canceled flights over Israel, Iran, and Iraq for security reasons, as shown by Flightradar24 data on Friday. In Israel, Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv was closed until further notice. Israeli airline El Al suspended its flights to and from Israel. According to state media, Iranian airspace was also closed, as were those of Jordan and Iraq. Iraq additionally halted operations at its airports.
Air India, which typically overflies Iran on its routes to Europe and North America, announced that several flights were rerouted or returned to their points of origin. Affected flights included those from New York, Vancouver, Chicago, and London. In Dubai, multiple incoming flights were diverted. Among them was an Emirates flight from Manchester, which was redirected to Istanbul. Budget carrier Flydubai said it had suspended flights to Amman, Beirut, Damascus, Iran, and Israel. Numerous other flights were canceled, rerouted, or returned to their departure airports. Qatar Airways canceled its two scheduled flights to the Syrian capital Damascus on Friday, according to Flightradar24 data.
When initial reports of the attacks on Iran emerged, several aircraft from airlines such as Emirates from Dubai, Lufthansa, and Air India were in Iranian airspace. Emirates and Lufthansa did not immediately comment.
(Reporting by Lisa Barrington, written by Christian Götz, edited by Elke Ahlswede. For inquiries, please contact our newsroom at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and economics) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for business and markets).)
