SEOUL: Airlines cleared out of the airspace over Israel, Iran and Iraq early on Friday after Israel launched attacks on targets in Iran, Flightradar24 data showed, with carriers scrambling to divert and cancel flights to keep passengers and crew safe.
Proliferating conflict zones around the world are becoming an increasing burden on airline operations and profitability, and more of a safety concern.
Six commercial aircraft have been shot down unintentionally and three nearly missed since 2001, according to aviation risk consultancy Osprey Flight Solutions.
Israel on Friday said it targeted Iran’s nuclear facilities, ballistic missile factories and military commanders at the start of what it warned would be a prolonged operation to prevent Tehran from building an atomic weapon.
Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport was closed until further notice, and Israel’s air defense units stood at high alert for possible retaliatory strikes from Iran.
Israeli flag carrier El Al Airlines said it had suspended flights to and from Israel.
Iranian airspace has been closed until further notice, state media reported. Jordan also closed its airspace to all flights due to the barrage of rockets.
But on Saturday morning, Jordan said it will reopen its airspace to civilian aircraft, its state-run media reported, signaling the Mideast kingdom believes there is no immediate danger of further attacks.
Jordan’s state-run Petra news agency said the skies would reopen at 7:30 a.m. local time.
Lebanon said it will temporarily reopen its airspace on Saturday at 10:00 a.m. (0700 GMT), the state news agency NNA said.
The airspace will be shut down again starting from 10:30 pm (1930 GMT) till 6:00 am (0300 GMT) on Sunday, NNA reported citing the Lebanese Civil Aviation Authority.
Earlier on Friday, Abu Dhabi’s Zayed International Airport said on its social media account that flight disruptions were expected and passengers were ‘advised to check with their airline for the latest status of their flights before travelling to the airport.’
Dubai’s Emirates Airline cancelled its Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Iran flights on Friday. Qatar Airways also cancelled flights to and from Iraq and Iran.
Wizz Air Abu Dhabi also cancelled a number of flights on Friday that were scheduled to fly over areas affected by regional tensions in the Middle East. Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways said it is experiencing disruption to several services across the region due to airspace closures and the ongoing regional situation.
Turkish Airlines subsidiary AJet has cancelled flights to Iran, Iraq and Jordan until Monday morning following Israel’s attack on Iran, an AJet source said on Friday.
Turkiye’s Pegasus Airlines said that it has cancelled flights to Iran until June 19 and flights to Iraq and Jordan until Monday.
The company said in a statement that it will operate flights to Lebanon only during daylight hours.
Greece’s Aegean Airlines has cancelled all flights to and from Tel Aviv scheduled for Friday, it said on its website.
Dutch airline KLM has cancelled all flights to Tel Aviv until at least July 1.
Russia’s Aeroflot cancelled flights between Moscow and Tehran, and made changes to other routes in the Middle East.
As reports of strikes on Iran emerged, a number of commercial flights by airlines including Emirates, Lufthansa and Air India were flying over Iran.
Emirates, Lufthansa and Air India did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Iraq early on Friday closed its airspace and suspended all traffic at its airports, Iraqi state media reported.
Eastern Iraq near the border with Iran contains one of the world’s busiest air corridors, with dozens of flights crossing between Europe and the Gulf, many on routes from Asia to Europe, at any one moment.
Flights steadily diverted over Central Asia or Saudi Arabia, flight tracking data showed.
“The situation is still emerging — operators should use a high degree of caution in the region at this time,” according to Safe Airspace, a website run by OPSGROUP, a membership-based organization that shares flight risk information.
Several flights due to land in Dubai were diverted early on Friday. An Emirates flight from Manchester to Dubai was diverted to Istanbul and a flydubai flight from Belgrade diverted to Yerevan, Armenia.
Budget carrier flydubai said it had suspended flights to Amman, Beirut, Damascus, Iran and Israel and a number of other flights had been canceled, rerouted or returned to their departure airports.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the Middle East since October 2023 led to commercial aviation sharing the skies with short-notice barrages of drones and missiles across major flight paths – some of which were reportedly close enough to be seen by pilots and passengers.
Last year, planes were shot down by weaponry in Kazakhstan and in Sudan. These incidents followed the high-profile downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014 and of Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 en route from Tehran in 2020.
