World leaders called for de-escalation amid tensions between Israel and Iran. (Representative)
German aviation group Lufthansa has suspended flights to Israel, Iraq and Jordan until early Saturday after Israel reportedly carried out retaliatory strikes against arch-enemy Iran.
Services to Tel Aviv in Israel, Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan and Amman in Jordan were suspended until 0500 GMT due to the “current situation”, a spokesperson told AFP.
“The safety of passengers and crew is always the highest priority,” the group said in a statement.
Lufthansa subsidiary Austrian Airlines also decided on Friday to suspend flights to Amman, Erbil and Tel Aviv as a “precautionary measure” “to reassess the security situation”.
“Ausrian Airlines continuously monitors and assesses the security situation in the Middle East and is in close contact with the authorities,” Austrian Airlines said in a statement to AFP.
Another subsidiary of the German group, SWISS, said it was suspending Zurich-Tel Aviv services until April 25.
Explaining the relatively long suspension, the report said repeated short-notice cancellations in recent weeks had caused problems for passengers.
“With this measure, we aim to provide stability, reliability and predictability to passengers and flight crew,” it added.
World leaders have called for de-escalation following Israel's reported attacks on Iran, which came in response to Tehran's missile and drone attack on Israel.
Both Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines have already suspended their flights to and from Tehran until the end of the month.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Our staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)