Suspending flights to the Middle East
Jan 24, 2026 | 4:18 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Europe
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Suspending flights to the Middle East
https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20260124-air-france-halts-service-to-dubai-klm-suspends-middle-east-flights
I was surprised to see that AF are suspending flights to the Middle East due to the situation in with Iran.
I was surprised to see that AF are suspending flights to the Middle East due to the situation in with Iran.
Jan 24, 2026 | 4:57 am
#2
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: France
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Would you prefer they do as MH and fly over a war zone? Does MH17 ring a bell?
Then see one of their planes downed by Iranian air defense or by a US trigger happy ship (Does USS Vincennes shooting down a civilian Airbus ring another bell?).
Jan 24, 2026 | 5:00 am
#3
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: here and there...
Posts: 4,355
KLM has been extremely risk-averse, as theyve operated to TLV via Paphos since restarting last year - no other EU carrier has done this. Perhaps due to union pressure?
AF operated into TLV today as scheduled, landing just a few minutes ago.
AF operated into TLV today as scheduled, landing just a few minutes ago.
Jan 24, 2026 | 5:35 am
#4
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: VIE
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What's ridiculous is that AF and KL have different policies.
I'm booked on AF to RUH next month (final destination DXB) with an award ticket so I'm glad to see that at least they're back to normal operations.
I'm booked on AF to RUH next month (final destination DXB) with an award ticket so I'm glad to see that at least they're back to normal operations.
Jan 24, 2026 | 6:25 am
#5
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: Devon, UK
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I thought it was LCA, but anyway Cyprus is a logical stop for change of crew to avoid overnight in TLV ( however, I do think it is OTT)
Jan 24, 2026 | 6:26 am
#6
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I just looked at Flightradar and I see an Air France flight en route to Dubai. Seems to be a big disconnect between the news and actual reality ! :-)
Jan 24, 2026 | 9:03 am
#7
Join Date: Jul 2022
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Jan 24, 2026 | 11:49 am
#8
Join Date: Oct 2008
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LO is one of the few western carriers flying over Iraq today.
Jan 24, 2026 | 2:12 pm
#9
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Jan 24, 2026 | 2:14 pm
#10
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The QR flights from Europe have been doing the same southern routing over Egypt as the European carriers .
Jan 26, 2026 | 9:41 pm
#11
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: UK
Programs: Mucci, BA, AF
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AF crew do not overnight in either TLV or BEY - its a there and back route and crew are allowed to refuse the flight up until the day before.
Jan 27, 2026 | 8:07 am
#13
Join Date: Jan 2018
Posts: 394
Does anyone know why Air France would resume flights much faster than KLM? AF seems to have cancelled 2 flights on Saturday, I had been looking at taking AF655 (the 1:30am departure from DXB) a couple weeks from now and was concerned about potential cancellations, it looks like they never even cancelled that flight for a single day because the cancellations started happening after it took off on Saturday and were then unsuspended by Sunday, while KLM remains suspended for now
Jan 27, 2026 | 8:10 am
#14
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Location: Netherlands
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I think any mechanism that would bind one airline to the decisions of the other, or require both airlines to make a single decision valid for both, would be strongly resisted by both airlines.
Jan 27, 2026 | 8:34 am
#15
Join Date: Oct 2019
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Among other things, I would expect AF's interactions with the French national security apparatus to be rather much more useful than KL's interactions with the Dutch national security apparatus...