German flag carrier Lufthansa has extended the suspension of all overnight flights to Israel until the end of January at the earliest due to the heightened security situation in the Middle East and renewed fears of hostilities with Iran.
The decision ensures that pilots and cabin crew no longer have to stay in Israel in between flights, reducing the possibility that staff could be stranded in the country if military activity suddenly ramps up.
Lufthansa cancels overnight flights until January 31
Airlines became jumpy on Wednesday night when it seemed like President Trump was about to order airstrikes on Iranian targets in response to the reported mass killings of protestors in the country.
Iran temporarily shuttered its airspace as it looked increasingly likely that military action was going to be taken before the White House unexpectedly sought to ease tensions and talked down the possibility of airstrikes taking place.
Nonetheless, Germany’s Lufthansa Group has decided to ‘play it safe’ and has extended the suspension of nighttime flights to Tel Aviv and Amman in Jordan until January 31 at the earliest.
The decision affects Lufthansa, as well as other airlines in the group, including Austrian Airlines and SWISS.
The Lufthansa Group will continue to fly to Tel Aviv, but some flights have been retimed to daytime departures.
Airline says decision prevents crew from being stuck in Israel
A spokesperson for the Lufthansa Group explained that the reason for the nighttime flight ban was to prevent it needing to ‘layover’ its pilots and cabin crew in Tel Aviv and Amman.
Instead, with daytime departures, aircrew can fly to Israel and back without ever needing to step off the airplane. That, of course, means that the amount of time crew spend in Israel is cut from 24 hours or more to just over an hour in most cases.
Why can’t crew fly straight back after a nighttime flight? This is likely down to legal flying hours known in Europe as ‘Flight Time Limitations.’ During unsociable hours when humans naturally feel tired, the number of hours that pilots and cabin crew can work is reduced, making it all but impossible to fly all the way from Europe to Israel and back, without ‘timing out’.
These are hard and fast rules that can only be extended in the event of an unplanned situation. Given that it’s known that flight time limitations would be extended during nighttime return flights to Israel, this doesn’t count as an unplanned situation.
United had to evacuate pilots and cabin crew out of Israel
There are very real concerns that foreign aircrew could become stranded in Israel should the security situation suddenly deteriorate. On several occasions over the last two years, foreign aircrews on layovers in Tel Aviv have needed to be extricated from Israel after flights were cancelled in response to military activity.
One of the most high-profile events occurred in April 2024 when United Airlines had pilots and flight attendants stuck in Tel Aviv just a month after restarting flights to Israel.
United Airlines had to evacuate its crew out of Israel to a nearby third country, where they could then be repatriated back to the United States. Following that incident, United Airlines suspended flights to Israel.
Flight attendant sues Delta Air Lines after missile attack on Israel
Last month, it emerged that a Delta Air Lines flight attendant was suing his former employer for retaliation after he got caught up in a Houthi rebel ballistic missile attack on Tel Aviv Ben Gurion Airport last May.
Mark Shannon had just worked a flight to Tel Aviv, which landed just as the missile attack was taking place. One of the missiles penetrated Israel’s sophisticated air defense system and landed on the outskirts of the airport.
Passengers and airline staff were rushed to air raid shelters where they had to hunker down until the all-clear was given. When they were allowed to leave, Delta wanted to fly all the crew straight back to New York without a layover in Tel Aviv.
Shannon says he was so upset by what had just happened that he refused to return to New York straight away so that he could get some rest. In the aftermath of this incident, Shannon says Delta retaliated against him for reporting his concerns to the FAA, and he was ultimately terminated by the airline.
