Global air traffic has been disrupted following Israel’s strikes on Iran Friday, with several major airlines suspending flights to and from locations in the Middle East and rerouting their planes to avoid much of the region’s airspace.
The airspace above Iran and Israel as well as Jordan, Syria and Iraq emptied of commercial flights on Friday, according to flight-tracking site Flightradar24.
Israel, Iran and Jordan all closed their airspace in the wake of the attack, while Iran suspended all domestic and international flights, the country’s state-affiliated Fars news agency reported on Friday, citing the civil aviation authority.
Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport, Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport and Amman’s Queen Alia International Airport all closed on Friday. Mehrabad will remain closed until 1:30 a.m. on Saturday, state news agency IRNA reported on Friday afternoon, while Ben Gurion is shut until further notice, the Israel Airports Authority said early Friday morning. Queen Alia International Airport didn’t say when it would reopen, advising passengers to contact their airlines.
As the strikes on Iran unfolded overnight, several flights were diverted or returned to their origin. Air India, the country’s flagship carrier, said on X that more than a dozen of its flights had been affected “due to the emerging situation in Iran,” including routes from New York, London, Vancouver and Washington.
One Delta Air Lines flight from New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport to Tel Aviv flew for eight hours only to end up back at JFK, according to Flightradar24.
Meanwhile, Israeli carriers El Al, Israir and Arkia evacuated their planes out of Israel as the country braced for retaliation from Iran, Reuters reported. Data on Flightradar24 shows several planes leaving Tel Aviv airport on Friday morning, several of them headed to nearby Cyprus.
Hermes, Cyprus’ airports operator, said 32 flights from the Middle East had been diverted to Larnaca and Paphos airports as of Friday morning, Reuters reported.
Throughout Friday, airline after airline announced it was suspending its flights to and from various cities in the region.
German carrier Lufthansa said flights to Tehran and Tel Aviv had been suspended until July 31, and its flights to Amman, Beirut and Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan until June 20.
Emirates, one of the United Arab Emirates’ flagship carriers, said it had canceled its flights to and from Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Iran until Sunday.
Air France told CNN in a statement that it had suspended flights to Tel Aviv until further notice, while its sister company Dutch carrier KLM said on its website that it will not fly to Tel Aviv until at least July 1.
Delta Air Lines warned that travel to, from or through Tel Aviv may be affected until June 30.
Qatar Airways has “temporarily cancelled flights to Iran and Iraq,” the airline said in a statement. Three major airports in Iran, including in the capital Tehran, and five airports in Iraq, including its capital Baghdad, have been affected, the airline said.
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