War in the Middle East: Air France extends the suspension of its flights, particularly to Dubai and Riyadh

The French airline group Air France and its German competitor Lufthansa are extending the suspension of their flights to the Middle East due to the war in the region, these companies announced.

Air France indicated this Tuesday that it was forced to “extend the suspension of its flights” in force since the start of the war on February 28, in particular those “to and from Dubai and Riyadh until March 31, 2026 inclusive (i.e. until April 1, 2026, for flights departing from Dubai)”. In addition, connections to and from Tel Aviv and Beirut are suspended at least “until April 4, 2026 inclusive”, according to the same source.

The “low-cost” airline of the Air France-KLM group, Transavia, has suspended its connections with Tel Aviv and Beirut “until March 27, 2026 inclusive” and with Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) “until March 28”.

Several companies concerned

“Due to the volatile situation in the Middle East”, all of the group’s airlines (Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, ITA Airways, Edelweiss, Eurowings and the freight transport subsidiary Lufthansa Cargo) will suspend their flights to the region at least until April 30 inclusive, Lufthansa said in a press release Monday evening.

Some Lufthansa group companies have suspended flights to certain destinations for even longer. Thus, all flights to and from Dubai and Tel Aviv will be suspended until May 31 inclusive for Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, ITA Airways, Edelweiss. Flights of these companies to and from Abu Dhabi, Amman, Beirut, Dammam, Riyadh, Erbil, Muscat and Tehran are also canceled until October 24 inclusive.

Furthermore, Eurowings plans to suspend its flights to Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Amman until October 24 inclusive. Earlier this Tuesday, the Hong Kong company Cathay Pacific announced that it would extend the suspension until May 31 of its flights to and from Dubai and Riyadh “taking into account the current situation in the Middle East”.

Iran responded to the Israeli-American offensive by targeting the Jewish state but also Washington’s allies in the Gulf, notably Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, including civil infrastructure such as airports, forcing these countries to close all or part of their airspace. According to air data expert company Cirium, Qatar Airways, a specialist in long-haul connecting flights, was one of the companies most affected by the war, having had to cancel nearly 92% of its flights since February 28.

Etihad, based in Abu Dhabi, has for its part canceled almost three quarters of its flights, and Emirates (Dubai) which operates the largest fleet of giant Airbus A380 planes and long-haul Boeing 777s, almost half according to Cirium.