Lufthansa extends Tehran flights suspension until April 18

Europe

BERLIN: German flagship airline Lufthansa has announced that it is extending its suspension of flights to and from Tehran until April 18. The airline will not use Iranian airspace during that time, the company said Friday.

The carrier said the decision was taken after a “careful evaluation” using government security assessments about the situation in the Middle East and its own information.

Lufthansa first announced it had canceled a flight from Frankfurt to Tehran last weekend to avoid the crew having to disembark and spend the night in Iran.

Middle Eastern countries and the United States have been on alert for a retaliatory attack by Iran since April 1, when the Iranian embassy compound in Syria was bombed by suspected Israeli warplanes.

Lufthansa and its subsidiary Austrian Airlines are the only two Western carriers that fly into Tehran, which is mostly served by Turkish and Middle Eastern airlines.

The company did not release the actual number of flights that would be affected by the suspension.__VOA News