Rising tensions in the Middle East have created air travel chaos, with global airlines diverting or cancelling flights on Wednesday and regional airports, including Lebanon, Israel and Kuwait, showing long delays, according to FlightRadar24 data.
Passengers queue at the check-in counters at Beirut-Rafic Al Hariri International Airport, in Beirut, Lebanon October 2, 2024. Reuters/Yara Abi Nader
Rising tensions in the Middle East have created air travel chaos, with global airlines diverting or cancelling flights on Wednesday and regional airports, including Lebanon, Israel and Kuwait, showing long delays, according to FlightRadar24 data.
Concern over travel disruption as the conflict intensifies also knocked shares in the travel and airline sectors on Wednesday morning.
Iran launched its largest missile attack against Israel on Tuesday in retaliation for Israel's campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, triggering a threat from Israel of a "painful response".
On Wednesday morning, a few flights were seen over Iranian airspace, according to a FlightRadar24 map, including from carrier flydubai, after Iran said its ballistic missile attack on Israel was over.
However, flights across the entire region were diverted or disrupted with little sign of broader normalisation.
Carriers around the world have cancelled flights to Israel and Lebanon in the wake of the escalating conflict, with many saying they won't resume until at least mid-October, depending on the security situation.
Both British Airways and Air France-KLM said their flight cancellations to Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport remained in place until at least early next week, including the Oct. 7 one-year anniversary of Hamas' attack on Israel.
AIRPORT IMPACT
Traffic over the Istanbul, Cairo and Antalya hubs remained dense as flights continued to avoid parts of Middle Eastern airspace.
Dubai International Airport reported 85% of its departing flights as delayed, while Beirut's Rafic Hariri International Airport had 60% of its flights cancelled, according to the airline tracker.
At Kuwait International Airport, 67% of arriving flights were delayed.
The latest disruptions are expected to deal a further blow to an industry already facing a host of restrictions due to conflicts between Israel and Hamas, and Russia and Ukraine.
Reporting by Joanna Plucinska
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan cautioned on Friday against any renewed attack on Iran, saying such a move would exacerbate tensions and further expand the conflict there, adding that diplomacy and dialogue were the only way to end the war.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday that peace negotiators from Ukraine, Russia and the United States had agreed to meet at a technical level in the first half of November in Abu Dhabi, adding that he hoped a meeting of the countries' leaders would follow.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Friday that a large-scale military operation in the occupied West Bank is on the way, after two Israeli soldiers were killed in a shooting attack in Hebron just days before Tuesday’s general election.
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