Travel traffic
Risk too big – Lufthansa cancels flights to Iran
Lufthansa airplane in Frankfurt
© AFP
The increasing tensions between Israel and Iran are having an impact on air traffic. Recently there were even rumors that Iran had closed the airspace over Tehran.
Lufthansa has canceled flights to the Iranian capital Tehran amid tensions in the Middle East. “We reassessed the security situation today and extended the cancellation of the daily flight from Frankfurt to Tehran until April 13,” a Lufthansa spokeswoman said on Thursday. The company announced on Wednesday evening that it had already decided to stop daily flights from April 6th due to the security situation.
Only Lufthansa flights affected, subsidiary maintains flight
“We are constantly monitoring the situation in the Middle East and are in close contact with the authorities,” it continued. “The safety of our guests and crew members is important Lufthansa’s top priority.”
The Lufthansa subsidiary Austrian Airlines (AUA) kept its flight because the plane can turn around again immediately due to the shorter flight time. At the weekend, the airline had no knowledge of an airspace closure in Iran, about which there was recently contradictory information.
Recently, there have been increasing threats from Iran against Israel following an attack on an Iranian consular building in Damascus last week, which was attributed to Israel. Iran’s spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, again threatened Israel with retaliation on Wednesday. In a speech, he said that Israel’s “evil regime” “must be punished and will be punished.” Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi and a high-ranking adviser to Khamenei had previously made corresponding threats.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz immediately countered in a statement on short message service X, saying: “If Iran attacks from its territory, Israel will respond and attack Iran.”
The Islamic Republic is a declared supporter of the radical Islamic group Hamas, which triggered the war in the Gaza Strip with its unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7th. Both Iran and Hamas have made it their mission to destroy Israel. The Shiite Hezbollah militia in Lebanon is also supported by Iran and is allied with Hamas.