Wizz Air, Delta pause and cancel flights to Israel due to escalating tensions

Two airlines, Wizz Air and Delta, announced separately that they would either pause or cancel their flights to and from Israel due to the escalating conflict throughout Tuesday.

The first announcement came from Wizz Air on Tuesday. According to Globes, the budget airline reportedly said all flights to Israel would be canceled until mid-January 2025.

Delta Air Lines DAL.N also said it would pause its flights between New York's JFK airport and Tel Aviv through March due to escalating conflict and safety concerns in Israel.

Delta reportedly said it had issued a travel waiver for all customers booked on its flights to and from Tel Aviv before March 31, 2025.

It had earlier suspended flights to Tel Aviv through the end of 2024.

Several airlines globally have suspended their services to Israel and Lebanon while also revising schedules to avoid the Iranian and Lebanese airspace in an attempt to ensure passenger safety as security concerns rise in the region.

A $4 million fine for airline discrimination against Jews

Additionally, on Tuesday, Lufthansa, Germany's largest airline, was fined a record $4 million for allegedly discriminating against Jewish passengers, The US Department of Transportation (DOT) announced.

The fine relates to a May 2022 incident where Lufthansa denied 128 Jewish passengers boarding a connecting flight to Budapest after initially preventing their boarding in Frankfurt. 

According to the DOT, this $4 million penalty is the largest ever issued against an airline for civil rights violations.