Airlines suspend Middle East flights
Israel's strikes against Iran have prompted international airlines to halt flights to some Middle East destinations due to air space closures and safety concerns.
As the conflict entered a new phase after the US attack on Iranian nuclear sites, some airlines moved to cancel flights to hubs like Dubai and Qatar's Doha.
Below are some of the airlines that have cancelled their flights to and from the region:
AIRBALTIC
Latvia's airBaltic said that all flights to and from Tel Aviv until September 30 had been cancelled.
AEROFLOT
Russia's Aeroflot said that it had cancelled flights between Moscow and Tehran, and made changes to other routes in the Middle East.
AIR EUROPA
The Spanish airline said that it has cancelled its flights to and from Tel Aviv until July 31.
AIR FRANCE-KLM
The French flag carrier suspended flights to Tel Aviv until July 14 and to and from Beirut until June 25. Air France is also cancelling flights to and from Dubai and Riyadh until June 24.
KLM said that it had cancelled all its flights to and from Tel Aviv until at least July 1 and added that some flights to, from or via Beirut until June 29 may be disrupted.
DELTA AIR LINES
The US carrier said that travel to, from, or through Tel Aviv may be affected until August 31.
EL AL ISRAEL AIRLINES
The carrier said that it had cancelled its regular flight schedule for EL AL and Sundor through June 27. Additionally, flights scheduled to depart through July 15 have been closed for new bookings until the security situation becomes clearer.
ETIHAD AIRWAYS
Etihad said it had cancelled flights between Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv until July 15.
EMIRATES
Emirates said that it had temporarily suspended flights to and from Iran (Tehran) and Iraq (Baghdad and Basra) until and including June 30.
FINNAIR
The Finnish airline cancelled its flights to and from Doha through to June 30, as well as flight AY1982 on July 1. Finnair added that it is not flying through the airspace of Iraq, Iran, Syria or Israel.
FLYDUBAI
Flydubai said that it had temporarily suspended flights to and from Iran, Iraq, Israel and Syria until June 30.
IAG
IAG-owned British Airways said that its flights to Tel Aviv remain suspended until July 31 and flights to Amman and Bahrain are suspended up to and including June 30.
The British carrier was set to resume Dubai and Doha flights on June 23 after cancelling routes to and from those airports the day before.
IAG's low-cost airline, Iberia Express, had previously said that it had cancelled its flights to Tel Aviv until June 30.
Iberia cancelled its flights to Doha or Dubai until June 24.
ISRAIR
The Israeli airline said that it had cancelled all its flights from and to Israel until June 30. Israir is stopping the sale of all its flights until July 7 (inclusive).
ITA AIRWAYS
The Italian Airline said that it would extend the suspension of Tel Aviv flights until July 31, including two flights scheduled on August 1.
LUFTHANSA GROUP
Lufthansa said that it had suspended all flights to and from Beirut until and including June 30 and to and from Tel Aviv and Tehran until and including July 31. Flights to and from Amman and Erbil are cancelled until and including July 11. The German airline added that it would also refrain from using the airspace of the countries concerned until further notice.
PEGASUS
The Turkish airline said that it had cancelled flights to Iran until July 30 and flights to Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan until June 30.
QATAR AIRWAYS
Qatar Airways said that it had temporarily cancelled flights to and from Iraq, Iran and Syria.
RYANAIR
Ryanair said that it had cancelled flights to and from Tel Aviv until September 30.
SINGAPORE AIRLINES
The Asian carrier cancelled flying from Singapore to Dubai until June 25.
TAROM
Romania's flag carrier said that it had suspended all commercial flights to and from Tel Aviv, Beirut and Amman until June 24.
TUS AIRWAYS
The Cypriot airline cancelled all its flights to and from Israel scheduled until June 30 (inclusive). Flights scheduled for departure between July 1 and July 7 are currently closed for sale, pending further developments, it said.
UNITED AIRLINES
The US carrier said that travel to and from Tel Aviv may be affected between June 13 and August 1. Flights to Dubai between June 18 and July 3 may also be affected.
WIZZ AIR
Wizz Air said it had suspended its operations to and from Tel Aviv and Amman until September 15. The Hungarian airline will also avoid overflying Israeli, Iraqi, Irani and Syrian airspace until further notice.
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Daily Maverick
5 hours ago
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The Single Article Act, designed to strengthen financial discipline, stemmed from this shift in parliamentary power. Snookered in ownership Following the Single Article Act, the parliament passed another significant piece of legislation in February 2005, known as the Irancell Act. This act imposed further conditions, requiring that 51% of the shares in the operating company be held by Iranian entities and that all board decisions require the approval of at least 50% of the shareholders. This was understood to be due to concerns about foreign entities becoming heavily involved in what was considered critical infrastructure in Iran. These legislative changes created significant obstacles for Turkcell, which had initially won the tender with a plan to control 70% of the shares. 'Turkcell was given multiple opportunities to negotiate with its existing partners to reach a compliant deal, but they didn't do that or they were not able to do that,' MTN's legal team argues. 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The Citizen
20 hours ago
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'The dispute, which has been simmering for many years, was reignited by Powell's testimony before Congress this week. 'Now that Trump is openly discussing replacing Powell, the issue has taken on heightened significance and the markets are bracing themselves for potential shifts in US monetary and interest rate policy, as well as questioning the independence of the most important central bank in the world.' ALSO READ: Navigating economic headwinds of grey list and US tariffs – BLSA Rand wins against the dollar again 'After briefly strengthening at the start of the week, the US dollar was trading about 2% weaker on Thursday after Trump said he might announce Powell's successor earlier than expected. For the rand, this meant a 2.0% appreciation against the greenback this week and minimal change against the UK pound sterling and euro,' Solomon says. Botes says while the rand traded at R17.8673/$ following strong trade since Monday, the weakening is seen as a correction following breaks below key technical levels and nervousness around the latest DA-ANC spat. Busisiwe Nkonki and Isaac Matshego, economists at the Nedbank Group Economic Unit, say the rand firmed further at the start of the week, in line with the broad trend in emerging market currencies, but weakened marginally on Thursday after news broke of Whitfield's dismissal. 'The local unit increased to R17.74/$ on Wednesday from R18.01 last Friday, but lost ground on Thursday to trade around R17.85 on Friday morning. The rand was trading at R17.81/$ on Friday afternoon. ALSO READ: Global mining sector revenue fell by 3% in 2024, but gold revenues increased 15% Commodity markets: Oil and gold decrease In commodity markets, the alleviation of supply risk caused the Brent Crude Oil price to drop by almost 18% compared to the previous week. 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Goldman Sachs warned that Brent could surge to $110/barrel if Middle East disruptions escalate.' In addition, she points out that the gold price moderated to $3,383.80/ounce, reaching a four-week low, as the Israel-Iran ceasefire appears to be holding and reduced safe haven demand. However, she says, lingering trade tensions and Fed rate cut expectations are still providing some support. ALSO READ: Disturbing survey reveals borrowing now a lifeline in SA Producer price index slows to 0.1% in May Headline factory-gate inflation, measured by the Producer Price Index (PPI) for final manufactured goods, slowed to 0.1% in May 2025 from 0.5% in April. Lebohang Namo, economist at the BER, says this was the lowest reading since November 2024. Food, beverages and tobacco products were the largest contributor (3.7%), while basic and fabricated metals (-12.3%) and chemicals, rubber and plastic products (-1.4%) were the largest detractors. On a monthly basis, PPI fell by 0.3% from 0.5% in April. Nkonki and Matshego say the outcome was lower than their forecast of 0.8% and the market's of 0.7%. 'The downward pressure primarily came from coke, petroleum, chemicals, rubber and plastics. Deflation in this category deepened, with prices down 6.4%, after falling by 5.5% in April. 'The drag came from fuel prices, reflecting the impact of lower global oil prices and a firmer rand. Costs remained subdued or declined further in most other categories. The prices of most food products declined further, albeit at a slower pace. The only exception was meat prices, which rose by a relatively steep 10.5%.' ALSO READ: Index reveals consumers are willing to spend money, but not too much Consumer confidence seemed to recover from slump in first quarter After plunging from -6 to -20 index points in the first quarter of 2025, the FNB/BER Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) rebounded to -10 in the second quarter. Namo says a number of adverse shocks knocked consumer sentiment during the first quarter, including the finance minister's (aborted) proposal to hike Vat by two percentage points, the fallout between the ANC and the DA about the budget, a brief return to stage 6 load shedding, souring diplomatic relations between South Africa and the US and Trump's alarming import tariff proposals. 'Consumer confidence is also still well below the average reading of -1 since 1994, signalling that consumers remain relatively pessimistic about the outlook for the economy and their household finances over the next twelve months.' ALSO READ: Take-home pay slides for third month with grim job opportunities and earnings Unemployment continued its upward trend According to Statistics SA's Quarterly Employment Statistics, employment fell by 74 000 jobs (-0.7%) in March to just under 10.6 million formal sector jobs.
