Air France has been forced to go on the offensive, denying reports that it is cancelling flights to the Middle East, including Dubai and Tel Aviv, after multiple news outlets carried the false information.
How did this happen?
On Friday, Dutch flag carrier KLM announced it was cancelling all flights to the Middle East with immediate effect and until further notice due to the geopolitical situation in the region.
KLM said it was making the decision of its own accord, but it is part of the aptly-named Air France-KLM Group, so, as you might expect, the two carriers do coordinate in certain aspects of their business.
In the immediate aftermath of KLM’s decision, Air France decided to cancel two nighttime departures from Paris Charles de Gaulle to Dubai.
Presumably, Air France was trying to gather further information about why KLM was cancelling its entire Middle East schedule and, out of an abundance of caution, decided to axe the flights while it sought advice from French government officials.
News outlets rushed to report the news
Multiple news outlets quickly reported that Air France was cancelling all flights to Dubai, as well as other destinations in the Middle East, including Tel Aviv, despite the fact that the evidence suggested otherwise.
Air France only ever cancelled its first nighttime departures from Paris to Dubai. The airline never posted any other cancellations, and all scheduled flights to Dubai and Tel Aviv have been operating as expected over the weekend.
Despite this obvious evidence, some news outlets continued to report that Air France was axing flights to the Middle East over fears of a U.S. military strike on Iran.
Air France responds in rare social media rebuke
As the inaccurate news of Air France suspending flights to the Middle East started to gain momentum on social media, the airline made the rare decision to start publicly fighting back against the misinformation.
Posting replies to several news outlets, including the Jerusalem Post and even Le Figaro, Air France stated: “Good evening, Air France did not suspend flights to Israel,” and “Air France has not suspended its flights to Israel and Saudi Arabia. Only the flights to Dubai were suspended on Friday and have resumed this Saturday.”
British Airways was also named by some news outlets
British Airways was also named as an airline cancelling flights to the Middle East because one scheduled service on Friday was axed. The reason, however, was due to a technical issue with the aircraft and had nothing to do with security concerns in the region.
The airline has continued to operate its flights throughout the Middle East as scheduled over the weekend.
Which airlines have altered flights to the Middle East?
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is the only airline to have cancelled all flights to the Middle East, however, airlines owned by the Lufthansa Group have decided not to operate nighttime flights to Tel Aviv for the time being.
Airlines affected by the decision include Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, SWISS, and ITA Airways.
The reason is so that pilots and flight attendants don’t have to have a layover in Israel and instead operate flights to Tel Aviv as a daytime turnaround service.
