Airlines are diverting flights away from the airspace of multiple Middle Eastern countries on Friday following Israel’s surprise airstrikes on Iran.
Tracking data from the website Flightradar24 shows that carriers are avoiding flying over Israel, Jordan, Iraq and Iran, which all have closed their airspaces, reports say.
“The purpose of the closure is to prevent and reduce risk to passengers and aircraft,” Israel’s Ministry of Transport and Road Safety said, according to Ynet News. “Passengers who were scheduled to depart today from [Tel Aviv’s] Ben Gurion Airport are requested to stay home and not to come to the airport.”
Airlines are also suspending flights in the wake of the airstrikes, which targeted Iran’s nuclear facilities and top military leaders.
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The Commander-in-Chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Hossein Salami and the country’s chief of staff of the armed forces, Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, were killed by the strikes. Those two military leaders have already been replaced by Iran’s government.
The dead include Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the IRGC’s Air Force, the Israeli Defense Forces said Friday.
Among the airlines to have canceled flights Friday is El Al – Israel’s flag carrier – which added it is moving some of its planes out of the country, Reuters reported.
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Lufthansa said it was suspending flights to Tehran until further notice and is temporarily avoiding Iranian, Iraqi and Israeli airspace, while Emirates also cancelled flights to multiple Middle Eastern countries, Reuters added.
Qatar Airways, Turkish Airlines, Air France, KLM, LOT Polish Airlines, Air India and Aeroflot also are among the airlines that suspended or diverted aircraft Friday following Israel’s strikes, Al Jazeera reported.
Iraq’s eastern border with Iran is one of the busiest air corridors in the world, with many daily flights passing through the region while traveling between Asia and Europe, according to Reuters.
Fox News Digital’s Rachel Wolf contributed to this report.
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