TEL AVIV — European carriers are beginning a phased return to Ben Gurion International Airport after roughly three months of suspended service, with Hungarian low-cost giant Wizz Air Holdings Plc restarting flights on May 28 and the Lufthansa Group AG carriers — including Austrian Airlines, Swiss International Air Lines AG, Deutsche Lufthansa AG, and Eurowings GmbH — staging a sequenced reopening between June 1 and mid-July, according to coordinated announcements Wednesday from the airline groups and confirmed by Israeli business publication Globes. The reopening follows Tuesday’s softening of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency‘s Conflict Zone Advisory for the Middle East and the Persian Gulf, the regulator’s first material easing since the outbreak of the war between Iran and a U.S.-Israeli coalition on February 28.

The schedule, as detailed by Lufthansa Group, places Austrian Airlines and Lufthansa Cargo as the first carriers back, reopening the Vienna-Tel Aviv and Frankfurt-Tel Aviv cargo routes on June 1. Lufthansa mainline passenger service and Swiss International Air Lines are scheduled to resume on July 1, with ITA Airways, the Italian flag carrier acquired by Lufthansa Group last year, expected to restart its Rome Fiumicino-Tel Aviv route on the same date. Eurowings, the group’s leisure-focused low-cost arm, is expected to resume operations in mid-July. Brussels Airlines, the group’s Belgian carrier, has announced it will keep its Tel Aviv flights suspended through October 24 — the longest holdout among Lufthansa Group carriers. “This decision was made after a comprehensive security and safety assessment,” Lufthansa Group said in its statement.

Wizz Air is moving faster than any of the Lufthansa Group carriers, putting it back in the Tel Aviv market a full month before Lufthansa mainline returns. Wizz Air Chief Commercial Officer Ian Malin said in the company’s announcement that “as Europe’s reliable airline and Israel’s number one low-cost airline, we are thrilled to confirm our return to Tel Aviv,” adding that “the safety and security of our passengers and crew remain our top priority, and we have taken a cautious and measured approach to this decision.” Wizz Air had been preparing to establish a permanent operational hub in Israel by April 2026 — a strategic move expected to bring meaningful price competition to a market where round-trip fares from Western Europe to Tel Aviv routinely run two to three times pre-war levels — before the February 28 outbreak forced a postponement. The May 28 restart is the first step in resuming that broader hub plan.

The reopening reflects the practical impact of the EASA advisory update. The European regulator extended its airspace warning for the region through May 27 but for the first time since the war began softened its assessment language significantly, describing the situation as having shifted from “active, intense military conflict” to “high tension” with “limited and isolated incidents.” The updated guidance continues to recommend that operators do not fly within the airspace of Iran, Iraq, or Lebanon but for Israel, Jordan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia, EASA now recommends only that carriers “exercise caution and take potential risks into account” when planning operations — a meaningful downgrade in regulatory language that gives major European carriers political cover to schedule resumed service.

The market that Wizz Air and the Lufthansa Group are returning to has been dominated for three months by a much narrower pool of carriers willing to fly. The largest national flag carrier serving Israel, El Al Israel Airlines Ltd., has continued operations throughout the conflict and has captured an outsized share of incoming passenger traffic, with fares reflecting the limited competition. Foreign carriers that resumed service before the EASA softening include Etihad Airways of Abu Dhabi, flydubai, Aegean Airlines of Greece, Bluebird Airways, Cyprus Airways, Sky Express, Tus Airways, Ethiopian Airlines, Azerbaijan Airlines, Smartwings of the Czech Republic, FlyOne, SkyUp, Air Seychelles, and Russian carrier Red Wings. The roster underscores how the market has been served largely by smaller regional and Gulf carriers rather than the major European and U.S. flag carriers that historically dominated Tel Aviv traffic.

The major U.S. and remaining European carriers continue to sit on the sidelines. British Airways has extended its Tel Aviv suspension through June 30 with a limited route expected to start in July. Air France suspended through May 27. Iberia Express, owned by International Consolidated Airlines Group SA, canceled flights through end of May. easyJet Plc, the U.K.-based low-cost carrier and direct Wizz Air competitor, has said it will stay away from Ben Gurion until at least winter. U.S. carriers have been the most conservative: Delta Air Lines Inc. has canceled its New York-Tel Aviv service through September 5, United Airlines Holdings Inc. has not yet resumed service, American Airlines Group Inc. has canceled flights through September 8, and Air Canada has suspended through September 8.

The business implications are concrete. Israel’s tech and biotech corridors — including the Tel Aviv offices of Intel Corp., Nvidia Corp., Microsoft Corp., Apple Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Meta Platforms Inc., and a large cohort of multinationals with Israeli R&D operations — have been operating for three months under significantly constrained executive travel. The Lufthansa Group decision restores direct same-day connectivity between Israel’s commercial capital and most of continental Europe’s major business hubs. Wizz Air’s May 28 return reintroduces leisure-priced capacity. Whether the full restoration extends to British Airways, Air France-KLM SA, the major U.S. carriers, and easyJet will depend on EASA’s next advisory update, the durability of the U.S.-Iran ceasefire, and the operational risk frameworks of each individual carrier. For now, the airlines flying back are doing so on a calendar of risk assessment that is finally pointing in a different direction.

— JBizNews Desk

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