Lufthansa resumes daytime flights to Tel Aviv amid ongoing Middle East tensions

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Runway Girl Network | Runway Girl Network

By Sky Industry News

Sep 10, 2024

Lufthansa Group carriers resumed daytime flights to Tel Aviv on 5 September, following a suspension of service in early August due to the Israel-Hamas conflict. Management expressed optimism about rebuilding the schedule for flights to the Israeli city.

“I think, from a commercial point of view, if you look at the Lufthansa Group of airlines, Israel is just a very important market for us,” said Frank Naeve, Lufthansa Group senior vice president global markets & stations. He made these remarks during an event in Chicago celebrating the introduction of Lufthansa’s new Allegris long-haul products to the US market.

“So, the decisions to stop operations based on safety concerns, that’s not taken lightly and the resumption is very important for us because we have a lot of customers that fly with us both from Tel Aviv but also to Tel Aviv as well. So, we’re very, very pleased that we can restart operations.”

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Tal Muscal, Deutsche Lufthansa’s director of group communications for The Americas, confirmed that Lufthansa and its sister airlines SWISS and Austrian operated their first flights back to Tel Aviv on 5 September. “Currently, it’s with daytime operations and hopefully they’ll be building up the flights within a few weeks,” he told Runway Girl Network.

However, given the current situation in the Middle East, Lufthansa's regular flights to and from Beirut remain suspended "up to and including Monday, 30th September," according to an online message from the airline. The statement emphasized security as a "top priority" for the Group.

“We regret having to make this decision. The Lufthansa Group is of course continuing to monitor the security situation intensively and is in close contact with the authorities,” it added.