British Airways to restart Israel flights from April

The airline, which suspended services to Tel Aviv in October amid the growing hostilities between Israel and Hamas, said it was aiming to launch four return services per week from 1 April.

A statement said: "We've taken the commercial decision to move Tel Aviv to our short-haul network when we restart our flights on 1 April.

"This aligns these flights with other similar length flights we operate, and we'll keep this decision under review."

It was understood that the decision to use smaller aircraft reflected the likelihood of weak demand due to the continued fighting in the region.

The aim to restart operations would be kept under review because of the evolving nature of the conflict, BA added.

Customers already booked on flights to and from Tel Aviv will be contacted and offered the option to rebook onto a new short-haul flight, request a refund or re-book onto an alternative service.

BA said that the Heathrow-Tel Aviv flights would involve a 45-minute stop in Cyprus to allow for a crew change.

This was due to the fact that flight staff were not currently able to stay in Tel Aviv on safety grounds, BA explained, and rules around flying hours had to be strictly enforced.

BA was among most major international airlines, bar El Al, to pause services to Tel Aviv as hostilities deepened between Israel and Hamas last year.

Etihad and Fly Dubai were two of the non-Israel carriers to maintain flights throughout.

EasyJet, which also grounded Israel flights last year, told Sky News it was continuing to keep the situation under review.

-sky news