Amid escalation fears, British Airways suspends Israel flights until March 2025

British Airways on Monday announced that it is suspending its flights to Tel Aviv until the end of March next year amid heightened fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, and as tensions rise in the Middle East.

“This will give greater certainty to our customers who we’re contacting to advise them of their options, including a full refund,” the Times of Israel quoted a spokesperson for British Airways as saying in an emailed statement.

British Airways joins a long list of carriers including easyJet, Wizz Air, Virgin Atlantic, and Delta Air lines that won’t be resuming flights in 2024.

Low-cost airline Wizz Air nixed all its flights to and from Israel until January 15 and Delta Airlines said it was extending its cancellation of all routes to Israel through at least the end of March.

Lufthansa Group, which includes Austrian Airlines, Swiss, Brussels Airlines and Lufthansa itself have extended their cancellation of Israel flights until November 10, while Eurowings, another member of the group, has cancelled all flights until November 30.

Foreign airlines have frequently canceled flights to and from Israel over the past year due to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, heightened tensions with Hezbollah, and two missile attacks by Iran in April and October.

These cancellations have intensified recently as Israel escalated its military response to Hezbollah’s near-daily rocket and drone strikes—targeting even central Israel.

The situation worsened with a second attack from Iran, which involved the launch of approximately 200 ballistic missiles at Israel, prompting the country to temporarily close its airspace.

With inputs from agencies