The Dutch flag carrier KLM is set to resume flights between Amsterdam and Tel Aviv on Wednesday after suddenly cancelling flights across the Middle East on Friday afternoon over security concerns.
KLM shocked passengers when it unexpectedly grounded all flights to Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates with immediate effect and until further notice, citing the “geopolitical situation” in the region.
Over the weekend, the airline said it was exploring ways to resume flights as quickly as possible, taking into account the possibility of the security situation in the Persian Gulf suddenly deteriorating.
On Tuesday, KLM resumed flights to Dammam and Riyadh in Saudi Arabia as scheduled.
While the airline has not provided any details on why it came to the conclusion that it was safe to restore these flights, presumably, the reason comes down to the fact that Saudi Arabia is further from Iran.
From Wednesday, KLM is also expected to restart flights to Tel Aviv, but the service will run slightly differently than in the past.
The Boeing 737 used on this route will fly non-stop to Tel Aviv as usual, but on the return leg, the plane will make a short stopover in Cyprus, where the aircraft will be refuelled, and a new crew will board the plane.
The reason for this is that KLM does not want its pilots and cabin crew to have overnight ‘layovers’ in Israel, just in case Iran were to launch an attack on the country.
So, one set of pilots and cabin crew work the non-stop flight to Tel Aviv, board new passengers, and fly the short distance to Cyprus. This set of crew gets off the plane, and a second set of pilots and flight attendants board to take the plane the rest of the way back to Amsterdam.
This isn’t necessarily unusual. When British Airways resumed flights to Tel Aviv, it was operating its flights in a very similar way to avoid crew needing to layover in Israel.
The Lufthansa Group is also avoiding overnight layovers in Israel by operating flights to Tel Aviv as ‘turnaround’ services, in which crew don’t get off the plane until they are back home.
There isn’t such good news for KLM’s flights to Dubai, however. The airline says these flights remain suspended but that it is looking at ways to safely restart the service.
Presumably, KLM doesn’t feel confident having aircrew on layovers in Dubai, but because these flights are operated by widebody aircraft with a lot more passengers and crew, it’s much more difficult to add a technical stop somewhere like Cyprus for a crew change.
KLM came in for criticism over how it handled the sudden cancellations as the airline struggled to rebook affected passengers on alternative flights. Under European passenger rights regulations, KLM is required to offer rebooking on another airline at the earliest possible opportunity.
