By Joanna Ploczynska
LONDON (Reuters) – Rising tensions in the Middle East caused chaos in air travel, with global airlines diverting or canceling flights on Wednesday and regional airports, including Lebanon, Israel and Kuwait, showing long delays, according to FlightRadar24 data.
Concerns about travel disruption as the conflict intensifies also hurt stocks in the travel and aviation sectors, with shares in TUI, Europe’s largest travel operator, falling more than five percent by 1227 GMT and Lufthansa shares falling more than four percent.
Iran launched its largest missile attack on Israel on Tuesday in response to the Israeli campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, prompting Israel to threaten a “painful response.”
On Wednesday morning, a few flights were seen over Iranian airspace, according to a FlightRadar24 map, including flights from Flydubai, after Iran said its ballistic missile attack on Israel had ended.
However, flights across the region have been diverted or grounded with little sign of things returning to normal more broadly, with some changing their routes to avoid certain airspace.
A spokesman for Polish airline LOT said, “All aircraft – especially flights to India – are avoiding Iranian airspace until further notice.”
The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) issued two information bulletins on conflict zones at the end of September advising airlines not to use Israeli or Lebanese airspace “at all levels of flight.” No such bulletin has been issued recently for Iranian airspace.
Airlines around the world have canceled flights to Israel and Lebanon in the wake of the escalating conflict, with many saying they will not resume until at least mid-October, depending on the security situation.
Both British Airways and Air France-KLM said cancellations of their flights to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport remain in place until at least early next week, including the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7.
Airport effect
Traffic over the Istanbul, Cairo and Antalya hubs remained heavy as flights continued to avoid parts of the Middle East airspace.
All flights departing from Zayed International Airport in Abu Dhabi were delayed, while 56% of flights scheduled to leave Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv were cancelled, according to an air traffic tracker.
At Queen Alia International Airport in Amman, about 38% of incoming flights were cancelled.
The latest unrest is expected to deal another blow to an industry already facing a host of restrictions due to conflicts between Israel and Hamas, Russia and Ukraine.