Flights at Beirut airport have experienced cancellations and delays, with Lebanon’s Middle East Airlines (MEA) attributing the disruptions to insurance risks amid rising tensions between Israel and Hezbollah.
Lufthansa has halted five routes to and from Beirut involving its carriers Swiss International Air Lines, Eurowings, and Lufthansa until July 30, citing cautionary measures.
Additionally, flight information from Beirut Airport and Flightradar24 revealed that Turkish Airlines cancelled two flights on Sunday night.
Other airlines, including Türkiye-based budget airline SunExpress, Turkish Airlines’ subsidiary AJet, Greek airline Aegean Airlines, Ethiopian Air, and MEA, have also called off flights scheduled to arrive in Beirut on Monday, according to Flightradar24.
The Director-General of Civil Aviation at Beirut International Airport, Fadi el-Hassan, affirmed that all international airlines operating daily flights to and from Beirut undergo annual security audits at Beirut International Airport.
El-Hassan stated in an interview with the American channel Alhurra that rumours about Hezbollah using the Lebanese airport to store weapons are baseless. He added that the purpose of such rumours is to tarnish Lebanon’s reputation and its public facilities.
Lebanon’s Minister of Public Works and Transport, Ali Hamieh, refuted on Sunday what was reported in the British newspaper Telegraph regarding the presence of weapons at Rafic Hariri International Airport in Beirut.
He confirmed that Beirut Airport has been subjected to a campaign of defamation damaging Lebanon’s reputation for years, describing the Telegraph’s claims as “ridiculous.”
Hezbollah was on high alert on Sunday, according to two security sources, as tensions escalated following an attack on the occupied Golan Heights that Israel attributed to the Lebanese armed group.
Hezbollah has denied responsibility for the attack.
The security sources reported that Hezbollah preemptively cleared some key sites in southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley, preparing for a potential Israeli attack.
