Lufthansa is to resume flights to Israel from January 8, 2024, becoming the first major airline group to announce the return to Tel Aviv following the October 7 terror attack.
Along with Lufthansa, both Austrian and SWISS which form part of the Lufthansa Group will also resume flights to Israel in January.
Lufthansa will initially operate four flights per week from its Frankfurt hub and three weekly services from Munich.
Austrian Airlines plans to operate as many as eight weekly services to Tel Aviv from Vienna and SWISS will serve the Israeli city with five weekly departures.
All flights will be operated by single aisle Airbus A320 series aircraft and total capacity will remain at just 30% of what it was before all flights were suspended.
Lufthansa is yet to publish the full schedule it intends to fly to Israel tickets won’t go on sale until Monday.
“Safety is always a top priority for the airlines in the Lufthansa Group. The Lufthansa Group continues to monitor the security situation in Israel closely and is in close contact with the local and international authorities,” the airline said in a statement.
“Possible flight schedule adjustments must be expected due to changing conditions.”
Lufthansa continued to operate flights to Israel following the October atrocity for two days before suspending all services because of the threat from rockets fired by Hamas into Israel from Gaza.
Many international have suspended flights until early January and are monitoring developments with a view to restarting operations as soon as they deem it safe enough.
