(Reuters) -Israel briefly reopened its airspace on Sunday and extends its flight operations on Monday, in order to help the tens of thousands of travelers blocked by generalized cancellations in the Middle East after the United States attack on Iran.

An organization that monitors air risks warned on Sunday that American strikes (link) on Iranian nuclear sites could increase the threat to American operators in the region.

The Russian and Ukrainian airspace being also closed due to the war, the Middle East has become a larger itinerary for thefts between Europe and Asia, but the website for monitoring Flightradar24 flights has shown an empty space above Iran, Iraq, Syria and Israel. Airlines have chosen routes such as the North via the Caspian Sea or South via Egypt and Saudi Arabia, even if this implies higher fuel and crew costs and longer flight times.

Air France KLM announced the cancellation of its flights to destination and from Dubai and Riyadh on Sunday and Monday. Singapore Airlines said it had canceled its Singapore flights to Dubai following a safety assessment and British Airways canceled its flights to Dubai and Doha. These cancellations only concerned Sunday, but Singapore said that other flights between Singapore and Dubai could be affected, the remaining “fluid” situation.

British Airways, which belongs to IAG, said that customers who were to travel between today and June 24 to Dubai and Doha can make a new reservation until July 6 inclusive, at no cost.

In the meantime, Israel is starting to find solutions to allow citizens blocked abroad to go home and foreign tourists to leave, even if it is done slowly. The Israeli airline El Al said on Sunday that it had received the country’s departure requests from around 25,000 people in the space of a day.

The Israeli airport authority said that so -called rescue flights to the country would develop from Monday, with 24 flights per day from various destinations, although each flight is limited to 50 passengers. El Al said that she would begin to serve eight international destinations on Monday after receiving the massive wave of requests to leave the country. Following a first Iranian missile shot, Israel also reopened its airspace for six hours on Sunday in order to repatriate people blocked abroad since the start of the conflict with Iran on June 13.

SAFE AIRSPACE, a website managed by OPSGroup, said that American attacks on Iran could increase the risks for American operators in the region.

“Although there have been no specific threats to civil aviation, Iran has already warned that it would ride by attacking American military interests in the Middle East, either directly or through agents such as Hezbollah,” said Safe Airspace.

Missile and drone dams in an increasing number of conflict areas represent a high risk (link) for air traffic.

During the nine days following the Israeli attack on Iran, the carriers suspended the flights (link) to destinations in affected countries, although there were some evacuation flights (link) from neighboring countries and some flights bringing blocked Israelis (link) at home.

Airlines are also concerned about a possible outbreak of oil prices following American attacks, which would increase the cost of kerosene. [O/R]

In the days preceding the American attacks, American Airlines suspended its flights to Qatar and United Airlines did the same for its flights to Dubai.

Safe Airspace said that the risks linked to airspace could now extend to Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The Israeli authorities opened the country’s main airport, Ben Gurion, near Tel Aviv, to landing of rescue flights on Sunday between 11:00 and 5:00 GMT. The small Haifa airport, which serves the north of the country, was also open from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. GMT.

Tens of thousands of Israelis and other people who had reserved tickets for Israel are blocked abroad and nearly 40,000 tourists in Israel seek to leave, some passing through the Jordanian borders to Amman and Aqaba and others by Egypt and by boat to Cyprus.

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