SWISS suspends flights to Beirut

Lufthansa Group, including Swiss, suspends flights to Beirut Keystone-SDA

Like the rest of the Lufthansa Group, Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) is suspending flights to Beirut.

Round-trip flights to the Lebanese capital have been cancelled until August 5, Lufthansa announced on Monday. The measure, justified for security reasons, concerns not only Lufthansa and SWISS, but also its subsidiary Eurowings.

Israel promised on Sunday to retaliate “with force” for a strike it blamed on Lebanese Hezbollah, which killed 12 youths playing on a football pitch in Golan Heights on Saturday. Israel’s security cabinet authorised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant to “decide how and when to respond to the Hezbollah terrorist organisation”.

The incident rekindled fears that the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, triggered by the October 7 attack, could spread to Lebanon.

Other airlines have also cancelled or rescheduled flights in the wake of these events. Air France and Transavia France have also announced the suspension of their services to Beirut on Monday and Tuesday “due to the security situation at destination”.

A flight operated by Greek carrier Aegean was cancelled on Sunday night, a Greek airport source told AFP on Monday. Lebanon’s Middle East Airlines said in a statement that it had rescheduled a number of flights on Sunday and Monday, citing “technical reasons linked to the distribution of insurance risks”.

Israeli forces and Hezbollah have been exchanging cross-border fire since the start of the conflict between Israel and Hamas in October. Against this backdrop, the Lufthansa Group has interrupted its travel to the region several times in recent months since the conflict began.

Adapted from French by DeepL/ac

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