Air France, British Airways, and the Lufthansa Group have extended their respective flight suspensions to a slew of destinations across the Middle East, with Lufthansa now not expected to return to Dubai until September 13 at the earliest.
The updates came just a day after a kamikaze drone launched from the west of the United Arab Emirates targeted the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant close to Abu Dhabi.
The drone struck an electricity substation outside the perimeter of the power plant, cutting off the mains supply to one of the facilities, and forcing the plant to work on an emergency supply until the substation could be fixed.
In the last 24 hours, the UAE also confirmed that it had downed six other drones launched at the country, as a fragile ceasefire between Iran and the United States and Israel hangs in the balance.
On Monday, President Trump said that he had delayed further military strikes on Iran, which had been set to recommence today, at the request of several Gulf nations.
European carriers haven’t flown to many destinations across the Persian Gulf since February 28, when the US and Israel launched their initial military campaign on Iran. So far, planned resumptions have been pushed back on several occasions, although the situation differs by airline.
Air France
Air France says that it currently plans to resume flights to Riyadh on May 26, while flights to Beirut, Dubai, and Tel Aviv are set to restart on June 3. This is by far the most ambitious flight restart plan of any of the major European airlines.
British Airways
On Tuesday, British Airways confirmed that it was once again extending flight cancellations to the Middle East, with route restarts to Dubai, Doha, Riyadh, and Tel Aviv not expected to resume until August 1.
Lufthansa Group
- Lufthansa and SWISS plan to restart flights to Tel Aviv on June 1, while Brussels Airlines has suspended Tel Aviv flights until October 24.
- Lufthansa and SWISS aim to restart flights to Dubai from September 14.
- All other flights to Abu Dhabi, Amman, Beirut, Dammam, Riyadh, Erbil, Muscat, and Tehran are suspended through October 25.
It’s probably safe to say that even if other flights resume as planned, the suspension of flights to Tehran will continue past October 25.
While European airlines continue to steer clear of the Middle East, local carriers are still working to restore their schedules to pre-war levels.
Emirates has now restored around 87% of its pre-war flights according to data compiled by Flight Radar 24, while Qatar Airways is operating around 65% of the number of its pre-war flights.
