German airline group Lufthansa has suspended flights to Israel, Iraq and Jordan until early Saturday after Israel reportedly carried out retaliatory strikes against arch-foe Iran.
Services to Tel Aviv in Israel, Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan and Amman in Jordan were axed until 0500 GMT due to the "current situation", a spokesman told AFP.
"The safety of passengers and crew always has top priority," the group said in a statement.
Lufthansa subsidiary Austrian Airlines also decided as a "precautionary measure" to suspend flights to Amman, Erbil and Tel Aviv on Friday "to comprehensively reassess the security situation".
"Austrian Airlines continuously monitors and assesses the security situation in the Middle East and is in close contact with the authorities," Austrian Airlines said in a statement sent to AFP.
Another subsidiary of the German group, SWISS, said it was suspending Zurich-Tel Aviv services until April 25.
Explaining the relatively long suspension, it said repeated cancellations at short notice in recent weeks had caused problems for passengers.
"With this measure, we aim to provide stability, reliability, and predictability for passengers and flight crews," it added.
World leaders have called for de-escalation after Israel's reported strikes on Iran, which came in response to Tehran's missile and drone attack against Israel.
Both Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines have already suspended their flights to and from Tehran up until the end of the month.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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