Air France, France's national carrier, which was expected to resume operations in Israel in mid January, announced on Tuesday that it had pushed back its timeline for restoring the its Israel flights, which has been frozen for many months due to the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip and the escalation in the Hezbollah-Israel fighting (which ended for now due to a shaky truce). Barring any further changes, the airline will resume its Tel Aviv – Paris route on January 24.
There are currently no foreign airlines are operating flights between Israel and France. The French airline is part of the same organization running the Dutch airline KLM, which also has yet to resume its flights to from the Netherlands to Tel Aviv.
Flights in and out of Israel by non-Israeli carriers, which dropped sharply in the beginning of the war but then gradually picked up as the situation calmed, suffered a major blow when the northern front escalated in September. But the recent truce with Hezbollah following the successful campaign that eradicated its top leadership, has seen the tourism industry get a boost, with the return of more airlines.
Flights to and from the US have been particularly hit, with virtually no flights available except with Israel's El Al airline. But just days ago another Israeli airline announced it was launching a new line from Tel Aviv to New York.
