European aviation regulators have given airlines the green light to resume flights to Israel as long as appropriate ‘mitigation measures’ are put in place, and every flight to the country has its own risk assessment.
The decision to allow airlines to resume flights to Israel comes nearly a week and a half after the European Air Safety Agency (EASA) said that flights to, from, and through Israel should be avoided at all costs due to the worsening security situation in the region.
On September 28, the agency published a ‘conflict zone information bulletin’ that warned airlines that flying to Israel involved a “high risk to civil aviation” and that while Israeli authorities had, until now, effectively managed the risks, the current intensity of the conflict posed too high a risk.
“Considering the current conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, there is a high risk to civil aviation. The conflict involves rockets, missiles and drones launches from Lebanon with Israeli airstrikes and artillery fire, including systematic activation of air-defence systems,” European regulators warned airlines last month.
“Hezbollah’s possession of all-altitude capable cruise and ballistic missiles, along with the deployment of air assets operating at various altitudes, increases the risk of misidentification and miscalculation.”
In its updated bulletin, EASA again warned airlines about the risk posed by both Hezbollah and Iran and reiterated its concerns that commercial jets could be caught up in the conflict. The agency did, however, stop short of telling air operators to avoid flying to Israel.
Instead, regulators said that flights could continue as long as “adequate mitigation measures” were put in place.
These measures should include a “stringent monitoring process and risk assessment for each flight when intending to operate within the airspace of Israel.”
“The risk assessment and mitigation measures should ensure that a flight does not commence or continue as planned unless it has been verified by all reasonable means that the airspace can be safely used for the planned operation,” the updated bulletin continued.
Many European airlines had already suspended flights to Israel and Lebanon and were avoiding overflying airspace in the region before EASA published its conflict zone bulletin in late September.
The Lufthansa Group has canned all flights to Tel Aviv until October 14 at the earliest, while British Airways says it has suspended services to Israel until further notice.
European low-cost carrier EasyJet has decided to suspend flights to Tel Aviv until March 2025, while Ryanair hopes to resume its flights to the Israeli city at the end of October.
