Airlines suspend flights and some countries close airspace after Israel launches attacks on Iran

Published

1 year ago

2025/06/13

Priyan

(File pic) Aeroplanes are parked on the tarmac at Israel's Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv (Aljazeera)

Several airlines have suspended or cancelled flights in the Middle East and some countries have shut their airspace after Israel launched a wave of air strikes on Iran.

The Israeli attacks targeted military facilities, nuclear sites and residential areas, killing two senior military commanders and nuclear scientists.

Here is a list of suspended and rerouted flights:

Emirates, the Middle East’s largest airline, said it had cancelled flights to and from Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Iran. Several flights scheduled for Friday and one Tehran flight on Saturday were listed as cancelled on the airline’s website.
Qatar Airways, the country’s national carrier and one of the Middle East’s largest, said it had “temporarily cancelled flights to Iran and Iraq due to (the) current situation in the region”.
El Al Airlines, an Israeli flag carrier, said it had suspended flights to and from Israel and was moving some of its planes out of the country.
Israir, a budget Israeli carrier, said it was evacuating its planes from Tel Aviv airport, which it said was expected to remain closed through the weekend.
Flydubai, or the Dubai Aviation Corporation, a budget carrier, said it had suspended flights to Amman, Beirut, Damascus, Iran and Israel and a number of other flights had been cancelled, rerouted or returned to their departure airports.
Etihad Airways and Turkish Airlines diverted some flights to Baku, Azerbaijan, according to Heydar Aliyev International Airport.
Pegasus Airlines, a Turkish carrier, has cancelled its flights to Iran until June 19 and flights to Iraq and Jordan until June 16. The company said in a statement that it will operate flights to Lebanon only during daylight hours.
Lufthansa, the largest airline in Germany, has suspended all flights to and from Tehran. In a statement, the company added that it would also avoid “Iranian, Iraqi and Israeli airspace for now”.
Air France, the country’s national carrier, has suspended flights to and from Tel Aviv “until further notice” following the closure of Israeli airspace.
KLM, a Dutch airline in partnership with Air France, has cancelled all flights to Tel Aviv until at least July 1, reported Dutch news agency ANP.
SWISS, which is owned by Lufthansa and is Switzerland’s national carrier, has suspended its Tel Aviv flights until October 25 while those to Beirut will be suspended until the end of July.
LOT Polish Airlines announced it will not be using Iranian airspace for flights to Asia, a spokesperson told state news agency PAP.
Wizz Air, a Hungarian budget airline, has suspended flights to Tel Aviv and re-routed flights affected by closed airspace in the region for the next 72 hours, it said in a statement through its Cyprus-based publicist.
Air India, a flag carrier of the subcontinent which overflies Iran for its Europe and North American flights, said several flights were being diverted or returned to their origin, including ones from New York, Vancouver, Chicago and London.
Aeroflot, Russia’s flagship airline, cancelled flights between Moscow and Tehran. In a statement, the airline said that flights to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha and the Maldives have been rerouted through Pakistani airspace.

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Landslide Early Warnings issued to the Districts of Kandy, Kegalle, Matale and Ratnapura

Published

17 hours ago

2026/10/4

Priyan

The Hational Building Research Institute (NBRI) has issued landslide early warnings to the Districts of Kandy, Kegalle, Matale and Ratnapura valid from 2200 hrs on 03rd October upto 2200 hrs on 04th October 2026.

Accordingly,

LEVEL II (AMBER) landslide early warnings have been issued to the Divisional Secretaries Divisions and surrounding areas of Udu Dumbara and Minipe 8n the Kandy district, Dehiowita in the Kegalle district, and Ambanganga Korale and Matale in the Matale district.

LEVEL I (YELLOW) landslide early warnings have been issued to the Divisional Secretaries Divisions and surrounding areas of Rambukkana in the Kegalle district, Rattota in the Matale district, and Eheliyagoda in the Ratnapura district.

Latest News

Turkish court detains football refereeing chief pending corruption trial

Published

1 day ago

2026/10/3

Priyan

The refereeing scandal is the latest controversy to shake football in Turkiye [Aljazeera]

The head of Turkiye’s football refereeing body and four other officials have been placed in pretrial detention by a court as part of a corruption investigation, the state news agency Anadolu reports.

Ferhat Gundogdu, head of the Central Referees Committee, and six others appeared before a judge over allegations of manipulation of the referee administration process, Anadolu said on Saturday.

They appeared on Friday before a judge at Istanbul’s Caglayan courthouse on several charges, including forgery of official documents, breach of trust and illegal acquisition of personal data, the report said.

The judge remanded five people in custody and granted the other two conditional release, Anadolu said.

It was the latest scandal to shake football in Turkiye, coming exactly a year after the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) suspended 149 referees on charges of illegal betting.

On Thursday night, police from the illegal betting and sports crime unit also detained Yasin Kol, a referee from Turkiye’s top-flight Super Lig, as well as an assistant referee, media reports said.

Justice Minister Akin Gurlek said prosecutors are examining claims about “interference in the processes of referee classification, assignments, scoring and appointments as well as the exams on rules”.

During raids on Tuesday, police searched the VAR room at TFF’s headquarters in Istanbul. Observers said the investigation was likely linked to last year’s betting scandal and would have implications for the federation.

“It does seem to be a continuation of 2025, and it looks like it will continue further,” sports journalist Ayhan Sensoy told the AFP news agency.

Sensoy, who wrote a 2024 book on the issue called The Gambling Pit, said it was unlikely that federation bosses “have any chance of staying in office”.

So far, the TFF has not directly addressed the arrests as its top officials are due to fly home on Saturday after attending Friday night’s Belgium-Turkiye UEFA Nations League clash in Liege, which Turkiye lost 3-0.

[Aljazeera]

Foreign News

Ten injured after car crashes into rugby supporters in Australia

Published

1 day ago

2026/10/3

Priyan

A fire truck drives towards a crash site as a police vehicle blocks a road in Wallsend, News South Wales, on October 3, 2026, after a car drove into a crowd [Aljazeera]

A car has crashed into a crowd of rugby league supporters in the eastern Australian city of Newcastle, injuring 10 people, including three children.

New South Wales police said on Saturday that two of the injured – a five-year-old girl and a 67-year-old man – were in a critical condition and the other eight were in stable condition in hospital.

Police said they had arrested the 18-year-old man driving the vehicle and were investigating what happened. They said the crash was not believed to be related to “terrorism”.

The crowd had gathered to farewell the local rugby league side, the Newcastle Knights, ahead of their grand final against the Sydney Roosters on Sunday.

Newcastle Lord Mayor Gavin Morris said the driver, a rugby league fan, had lost control of his vehicle and had been taken into custody.

“He was revving the car, he was excited, he was a supporter, he was there for the joy of the moment,” Morris told the national broadcaster ABC.

“Somehow he lost control of the car … and he’s gone into the crowd,” he added.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said: “My thoughts are with everyone injured or involved in the horrible incident this morning in Newcastle.”

“Rugby league brings people together, and this should have been a weekend of excitement and pride for Newcastle fans,” he wrote in a social media post.

[Aljazeera]