The skies over Iraq, Jordan, Palestine, Israel, Lebanon and Iran appear almost empty of flights passing from east to west and vice versa, according to the “Flight Radar 24” website, which tracks global air traffic.
On the other hand, the majority of international airlines took somewhat distant shipping routes to avoid tensions in the Middle East, whose skies witness constant flights of Israeli warplanes and missiles between the parties to the conflict.
In the face of tensions resulting from the genocide committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip a year ago, airlines linking Europe to the Middle East and South Asia were forced to fly a more circuitous route using Egyptian and Saudi airspace.
Air junction
The Middle East has long been a global crossroads for air travel, with hundreds of planes crossing the region every day on long-haul flights linking the United States, Europe and Asia.
But traveling on these routes has become more challenging, as increasing tensions have forced airlines to reduce services as a safety precaution, while the Israeli genocide in Gaza has added more complications to flying between East and West.
These challenges come after the Russian-Ukrainian war added additional hours of flight time to many flights by closing the vast airspace to many cross-border operators.
This week has been the most avoided of Iranian, Lebanese, and Israeli airspace in particular, since Israel began committing massacres against Palestinians in Gaza in October 2023.
Avoiding shipping lines over the region coincided with dozens of international airlines suspending their flights to Israel, Lebanon and Iran, and to a lesser extent Jordan and Iraq, due to the escalation of confrontations.
The basis of the crisis
Yesterday, Tuesday, Iran launched dozens of missiles at Israel (180 by Israeli estimates) “in response to the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh and Hassan Nasrallah and its massacres in Gaza and Lebanon,” according to what Tehran announced.
This caused human casualties, material damage, and the closure of airspace, while millions of Israelis rushed to shelters.
Israel assassinated Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah and others in an air strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut on September 27.
While the head of the political bureau of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) was assassinated by bombing his residence during a visit to Tehran at the end of last July, Iran accused Israel of assassinating him.
Change paths
According to the “Flight Radar 24” website, British Airways, Emirates, Lufthansa and other airlines have begun diverting services away from Iraqi airspace since the beginning of this October.
This change in shipping lines came after Israel announced that missiles from Iran were fired at the occupying state, as many companies switched to flying via Saudi Arabia and over the Sinai Peninsula.
Dutch airline KLM said in a statement that it had rerouted some of its flights and avoided the airspace of Iran, Iraq and Jordan.
Flying on shipping lines far from direct routes is considered expensive for airlines, in terms of fuel consumption, in addition to causing chaos in the take-off and landing times of many flights.
Ben Gurion Airport
In Israel, data from Ben Gurion Airport showed that the shipping authorities changed their routes on more than one occasion since the expansion of the conflict with Hezbollah since last September 23.
At a time when Ben Gurion Airport was handling approximately 550 flights daily, today it has fallen to less than 200 due to many international airlines canceling their flights to Tel Aviv due to the existing tensions.
Going back to the first months of the Gaza war, the Israeli airline El Al stopped flying over most of the Arabian Peninsula, citing safety concerns, which led to several-hour flights to Bangkok being expensive.
The Israeli company also postponed its services to India, while canceling seasonal routes to Tokyo.
In the first month of the war on Gaza, demand for international travel decreased by 5% since the events of October 7, 2023, according to ForwardKeys.) It is a travel analytics company.
