Spanish airline Air Europa announced Thursday the cancellation of its flights to Israel until November 30.
The halt of the Air Europa flights comes a day after a company plane that was on its way to land in Israel was forced to turn around in the air and return to Madrid over missiles fired from Lebanon and reportedly aimed at Ben Gurion Airport.
Security cameras recording a direct hit from a rocket fired at Ben Gurion Airport
(Video: Tamam factory security camera)
The company had already announced that it would cancel the company's Thursday flight from Madrid to Tel Aviv, with passengers notified that they could choose an alternative flight from Barcelona to Tel Aviv or receive a refund.
The missile barrage on Wednesday morning targeting central Israel triggered sirens in many localities and led to missile fragments falling in Ra'anana and an Iranian-made Hezbollah Fateh-110 solid-fueled surface-to-surface ballistic missile landing near Ben Gurion Airport.
The airspace was closed for a few minutes, but the airport quickly resumed operations without major delays in departures and arrivals. The morning barrage was not the only incident in the area. In the afternoon, another launch triggered sirens in dozens of communities around Ben Gurion Airport. The IDF reported that a single projectile was intercepted, and there were no effects on the airspace.
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Air Europa had to turn around in midair over Israel
(Photo: Vytautas Kielaitis / Shutterstock.com)
Currently, mostly Israeli airlines are operating at Ben Gurion Airport, with only about 16,000 passengers passing through the airport daily.
Several other airlines this week announced that they would extend the cancellation of flights to Israel.
Aegean Airlines, the national airline of Greece, announced Wednesday night that it is extending the cancellation of its flights to Israel until December 2.
Air France , the national airline of France, announced on Monday that it is extending the cancellation of flights on the Paris-Tel Aviv line until November 12.
American Airlines announced this week that it will not fly to Israel again until the end of the summer. The American airline had canceled its flights until the end of March 2025, and has now extended the cancellations until the end of August 2025 at least.
The Lufthansa Group, which includes the companies Lufthansa Airlines, Swiss, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines and Eurowings, announced that the suspension of flights to Tel Aviv will continue until November 25.
Some airlines have resumed flights to Israel after they were canceled.
Fly Dubai canceled all its flights for one day after Israel's October 1 attack on Iran, and later returned to fly to Israel. Ethiopian Airlines resumed flying to Israel after several days of cancellations. The Czech low-cost company Smart Wings has resumed its flights to Israel. Tarom, the national airline of Romania, returned to fly to Israel after a few days of absence.
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