Four foreign airlines suspended flights to Israel today because of renewed fighting on Cyprus. The airlines–Air France, Alitalia, TWA and British Airways–declined to accept a routing south of the Cyprus danger zone that was charted by Israeli navigators and approved by the safety committee of the International Air Transport Association (IATA). El Al is flying the new route, however, and is reportedly maintaining its schedules despite the burden of passengers shifted from foreign carriers.
El Al has suspended service to Istanbul where the airport has been closed and a flight to Teheran this morning was delayed. But all other El Al flights to the U.S. and Europe are departing on schedule, an airline official said. An Air France jumbo jet that took off for Europe this morning returned to Ben Gurion Airport after the pilot was informed by the Athens airport control tower that the regular route over Cyprus was in the danger zone.
Israeli aviation circles expressed surprise over the suspension of service by the four major foreign air lines and said mail service might suffer as a result. Alitalia has transferred its Israel-bound passengers to El Al. According to Israeli officials, the new route adopted by Israeli planes is well south of the danger zone and in continuous contact with the Ben Gurion Airport control tower and with radio navigation beams located in Italy and Crete.
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