After canceling its flights last week, Netherlands airline KLM has announced their resumption, but with a stop in Cyprus. Air France, which in the same group as KLM, canceled its flights for just one day and resumed them on Saturday.
KLM will start flying to Israel again on January 28, but because of the tensions in the region and after a situation assessment the flight schedule will be temporarily revised. Flights from Amsterdam to Tel Aviv will take off at 08:15 and land at 13:45. Return flight from Israel will leave in the afternoon, but will make an intermediate stop in Paphos for what the company describes as “operational needs.” Passengers will not leave the plane. Take-off from Tel Aviv is scheduled for 15:20, and landing in Amsterdam for 20:55.
This is an operating model that enables airlines to continue flying to Israel without their crews having to stay overnight in the country. A relief crew takes over in Cyprus. The airline thereby abides by the limits on flying hours for crews. The model is not unique to KLM. British Airways made stops in Cyprus during the war, and Virgin Atlantic planned to utilize this model but in fact it has not flown to Israel since October 7 2023.
Lufthansa Group also partially cancelled its flights to Israel for similar reasons. Last week it announced that it would operate flights to and from Tel Aviv as day flights only. The decision, which came in to force on January 15, has been extended to January 31, This allows crews to make the round trip on the same day and avoid spending the night in Israel.
This morning, Italian airline ITA Airways (which is in the process of joining the Lufthansa Group) came into line with this decision and announced the cancellation of its night and early morning flights to and from Israel until the end of the month.
Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on January 27, 2026.
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2026.
