Air India suspends Tel Aviv flights temporarily amid Israel-Iran tensions

Air traffic disrupted: Air India has announced that its flights from Tel Aviv will remain suspended till 30th August amid heightened tensions between Israel and Iran.  

The airline, which is owned by the Tata group, had resumed services to Tel Aviv on March 3 after a hiatus of nearly five months. This decision comes after Air India had previously suspended flights to and from Tel Aviv on October 7, 2023, following a Hamas attack on the Israeli city.

Middle East air carriers resume operations 

After the initial rerouting, major airlines in the Middle East have announced the resumption of operations in the region following Iran's launch of numerous drones and missiles at Israel over Saturday night into Sunday. According to a spokesperson, Emirates Airlines, which had previously cancelled and rerouted some flights due to temporary airspace closures, is now reinstating scheduled operations to and from Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq starting Sunday afternoon.

Similarly, Qatar Airways has resumed services to Amman, Beirut, and Baghdad, as stated in a post on X. Etihad Airways is also planning to resume scheduled passenger and cargo services between Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv, Amman, and Beirut from Monday onwards.

However, Etihad cautioned that despite the return to normalcy after the temporary airspace closures in parts of the Middle East, there may still be some risk of disruption on Monday, April 15th.

"Some of our flights have been impacted by the temporary closure of certain airspaces in the region," stated Fly Dubai, the United Arab Emirates airline, as quoted on the state news agency WAM.

(With PTI and Reuters inputs)