BEIRUT: Air France and the German airline group Lufthansa said on Monday they were suspending flights to Beirut after Israel threatened reprisals for a rocket strike launched from Lebanon.

Lufthansa services would be halted up to and including August 5 due to “current developments in the Middle East”, a group spokesman said.

Air France and its low-cost subsidiary Transavia France meanwhile said that flights between French airports and Beirut would be suspended on Monday and Tuesday because of the “security situation” in Lebanon. Israel blamed Hezbollah, which said it had “no connection” to the strike.

The incident heightened fears that the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza could spread north to Lebanon.

The country’s only airport in Beirut was packed with travellers on Monday, including families anxiously awaiting delayed flights in the suffocating heat.

Syrian-German traveller Nisreen al-Hussein said she found out her flight to Dusseldorf had been cancelled upon arriving at Beirut airport.

“I’m trying to look for another flight but they’re all either packed or cancelled,” said Hussein, who was travelling with children.

‘Long hours in the heat’

Many Syrians have been taking flights from Beirut since civil war erupted in their country in 2011.

Ahmad Arafat, from the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, said he had been waiting with his family for a delayed Paris flight for two hours. “I don’t know what I’ll do if the flight is cancelled,” he said.

“It’s going to be difficult waiting long hours in the heat, with young children and little available seating.” Other airlines have also cancelled or rescheduled flights in the wake of the attack.

A Greek airport source said that an Aegean flight to Beirut had been cancelled on Sunday night. Lebanon’s Middle East Airlines said in a statement that it had rescheduled a number of flights on Sunday and Monday, citing “technical reasons related to the distribution of (aircraft) insurance risks”.

The Lufthansa group, which includes Swiss and Austrian Airlines, has repeatedly paused travel to the region since the Gaza conflict began in early October.

Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2024