Image: Chris Hoare, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia
Last Monday, several European airlines resumed flights to Israel after briefly suspending operations due to the fallout from a massive Hamas terrorist attack that began on Saturday and has already claimed the lives of at least 1,200 Israelis and foreign visitors.
Airlines that have resumed scheduled flights to Israel’s main international terminal, BenGurion Airport in Tel Aviv, include British Airways and Iberia, both part of the European airline group IAG.
Other airlines offering scheduled flights to Tel Aviv on Monday include Air Europa and Virgin Atlantic, Paddle Your Own Kanoo reported. Some Ryanair flights also operated to Tel Aviv, although most of the airline’s routes to the Israeli city remain suspended.
Flight operations continued at Ben Gurion, although the airport was the target of sporadic rocket attacks. In one incident on Monday, a rocket fired from Gaza hit the airport site, although authorities said the impact occurred in a field and no damage was reported.
However, the incident was enough to unsettle passengers and staff, who were told to seek shelter when warning sirens sounded again.
The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has ordered airlines to carry out “robust risk assessments” before resuming flights to Israel and to be prepared with “a high level of contingency planning” should the situation suddenly change.
However, in a recent Conflict Zones Information Bulletin, European aviation safety authorities said there was no evidence that “mitigation measures” such as Israel’s Iron Dome missile interceptor system were “inefficient or inadequate.”
“It is therefore considered that the risks to civil aviation are being effectively managed by the authorities of the State of Israel,” the EASA statement continued.
Despite assurances, most European airlines continue to suspend operations in Europe. These include Air France, ITA Airways, Lufthansa and easyJet. US airlines, including American Airlines, Delta and United Airlines, have also suspended flights to Tel Aviv for at least the next few days.
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