By Desmond Nleya
On Saturday night Iran launched its retaliatory drones towards Israel in what many analysts described as the build-up to a massive global conflict likely to trigger the third world war.
This comes up Israel earlier this month killed 7 top commanders of Iran in a strike in Syria.
On Saturday, after the launch of the strikes, airspace closures through the Middle East grounded and diverted flights.
United Airlines, which resumed service to Tel Aviv early last month after suspending Israel flights after the Hamas attacks in October, called off its Newark to Tel Aviv flight on Saturday after Israel closed its airspace.
Jordan and Iraq had also closed their airspace, according to Jordanian state-owned media news outlet Al Mamlaka.
“We are closely monitoring the situation and will make decisions on upcoming flights with a focus on the safety of our customers and crews,” United said in a statement. The carrier is the only U.S. airline to have resumed service to Israel since October. Delta was scheduled to restart flights to Tel Aviv on June. 7. American Airlines has not resumed Israel service.
United also canceled its flight from Washington Dulles International Airport to Amman, Jordan on Saturday night, “due to unrest in the Middle East.” United also canceled its Newark-Dubai flight on Sunday.
It was not clear when flights would resume.
Some flights avoided large swaths of airspace in the Middle East, reroutes that delayed some planes, Swiss International Airlines said.
Flight-tracking site Flightradar24 said multiple flights bound for Tel Aviv and Amman had diverted on Saturday.
Airlines also canceled service scheduled for Sunday. Israel’s El Al cancelled more than 20 Sunday flights. Two El Al flights headed for Israel from Thailand diverted to Bangkok. The carrier told passengers not to come to the airport until notified.
Emirates Airline canceled its Dubai-Amman flight scheduled for Sunday. Air France’s Israel service was canceled for Sunday and British Airways canceled its two flights to Tel Aviv on Sunday and scrubbed a flight to Amman. Lufthansa also canceled its service to Israel.
