The Latvian airline, AirBaltic, has revealed that all their flights to and from Tel Aviv Airport will remain suspended until March of this year. The measure was set to expire on January 1, this year.
The company highlighted that such a decision comes due to the uncertainty related to the current situation in Israel, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
The safety and security of passengers, employees and flights is the main priority of airBaltic.
AirBaltic confirmed that they are in touch with both national and international authorities, henceforth they are ready to change their flight schedule if needed.
The airline further invited all the affected passengers to verify their bookings on the airline’s website for a refund or to contact their support centre for other possible changes.
The measure was initially taken last year, following the Hamas attack in Israel. On October 17 2023, AirBaltic announced the suspension of all its flights to and from Tel Aviv until January 1, 2024, for the same reasons as mentioned above.
However, on October 16 last year, in response to a request from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia, the Latvian national airline AirBaltic operated a special flight with 148 seats from Riga to Tel Aviv and back.
In 2022, AirBaltic made a similar decision by suspending all flights to Russia until the end of May that year. In response, Russian authorities implemented reciprocal measures, henceforth AirBaltic was among the most affected airlines by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
On the other hand, eight European airlines have decided to restart flights to Israel during January and February this year.
More specifically, Air France, Bluebird Airways and Bulgaria Air, plan to start specific flights this month, whereas four other airlines: TUS, Transavia, LOT, and Vueling, aim to resume partial service during the same period.
In addition, Air Europa aims to restart flights to Madrid at the beginning of February. However, these airlines warned to suspend flights to Israel once again in case the security situation worsens.
Following the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 last year, several international airlines have reduced or postponed their flights to this country. As a result, during this month, Ben-Gurion Airport experienced a 41.25 per cent decrease in passenger arrivals compared to the same month in 2022.
During this period, this airport welcomed 1,172,435 international passengers and 9,078 international flights, which is 28.9 per cent less than in October 2022.