FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) – Airline passengers are increasingly having connections to the Middle East again. Airlines are starting their first scheduled flights to the crisis region, but travel planning is still fraught with uncertainty. Lufthansa canceled a scheduled flight from Munich to the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh for security reasons.
Such situations will be seen more often in the coming weeks, said Lufhansa boss Carsten Spohr in Frankfurt. “Safety comes first.”
Flights from Dubai and Abu Dhabi
After numerous flight cancellations due to the Iran war, the airline Etihad Airways announced a limited number of flights from Abu Dhabi to Europe. The airline announced that it will fly to Frankfurt, London, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Rome and Zurich, among others. Passengers with existing bookings would be accommodated as quickly as possible.
The federal government spoke on Thursday of a relaxation in commercial air traffic. Accordingly, 250 commercial flights were planned from Dubai and Abu Dhabi that day, over 60 of which were to Europe and some to Germany.
Tens of thousands of passengers affected by escalation
Because of the escalation of the conflict since last weekend, tens of thousands of people who were vacationing in the Middle East or wanted to use one of the airports there as a hub are still stuck. Many countries there had temporarily closed their airspace completely. Limited flights are now possible again.
The Lufthansa subsidiary Eurowings is sending its first aircraft to the crisis area to bring around 150 tourists back to Germany. A special flight from Riyadh to Cologne is planned on the night of Friday to Saturday, as the company announced. Guests from our own tour operator Eurowings Holidays come on board. This is the Lufthansa Group’s first repatriation flight to Germany. The airline has previously worked as a service provider for the federal government.
Government plans special flight from Riyadh
In addition, after three special flights from Oman, the federal government also wants to bring Germans stranded in the region from Riyadh back home. Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul (CDU) announced this on Thursday evening. According to a paper from the Foreign Office available to the German Press Agency for the information of the Bundestag, passengers such as pregnant women, sick people or the elderly should be brought overland from the Gulf Emirate of Qatar to Riyadh in preparation for their departure.
Lufthansa is now experiencing a sharp increase in demand for direct flights to Asia and Africa. The reason is the failure of connecting connections via the hubs of Arab companies in the crisis region. The Lufthansa Group is therefore considering increasing the number of connections to, for example, Singapore, India, China and South Africa./ceb/gma/bf/DP/men
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