Iran Launches Israel Attack: Planes Diverted and Airspace Closed

14.04.2024 - 05:37 / skift.com / Delta Air Lines / El Al / United Airlines

Airlines have been changing routes and canceling flights in response to an escalation in tensions between Israel and Iran.

Iran has launched dozens of drones and missiles at Israel. The widely anticipated attack is seen as retaliation after an airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Syria last week.

In addition to diversions and cancellations into Tel Aviv, airspace over Israel, Iran, Iraq and Jordan has been either closed or heavily restricted.

Daniel Hagari, the spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces, said Saturday night that most of the missiles had been intercepted, and that the strikes caused minor damage, according to a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

American Airlines canceled its flights between Philadelphia and Doha, Qatar on Saturday due to the attacks.

El Al: Israeli national carrier El Al said it was canceling more than a dozen flights from Tel Aviv due to the situation.

United Airlines was among the major carriers to cancel its service to Tel Aviv on Saturday. The U.S. carrier later said it was also canceling its Saturday flight to Amman, Jordan. It is currently not planning to cancel its Sunday service to Tel Aviv.

“We have canceled Saturday’s planned flight from Newark to Tel Aviv and its associated return flight due to restrictions on Israeli airspace,” a United spokesperson said. “We are closely monitoring the situation and will make decisions on upcoming flights with a focus on the safety of our customers and crews.”

Etihad reported changes to its routes: “Following notification of the closure of airspace over Israel, Jordan and Iraq, Etihad is re-routing a number of its European and North American flights on Sunday 14 April to overfly the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Egypt. This is likely to cause some disruption and delay to a number of flights over the course of the day.”

As of Saturday night, Etihad said it decided to cancel flights to Tel Aviv and Amman on Sunday.

Swiss said it would suspend its “flight operations to and from Tel Aviv until further notice….as many airspaces are closed due to the current situation, we are currently assessing to what extent flights that have already taken off need to be diverted.” Swiss added: “Following Iran’s attack against Israeli territory, all SWISS aircraft are avoiding the airspaces of Iran, Iraq and Israel.”

Flydubai also reported disruptions. “Some of our flights have been impacted by the temporary closure of a number of airspaces in the region,” said a Flydubai spokesperson. “We continue to closely monitor the situation and will make any amendments to our schedule accordingly.”

Delta Air Lines recently resumed service to Israel in March, but it’s unclear if the carrier has stopped flights to Tel Aviv due to the attack. Delta