Washington — Delta Air Lines extended its suspension of flights to Israel yesterday amid hostilities between Israel and the militant group Hamas, its chief executive said on CNBC.“Today . . . we are not flying to Israel,” Delta CEO Richard Anderson said in an interview with CNBC.

His comments come a day after air carriers in the United States and Europe halted flights to Tel Aviv as turmoil in Israel and the Gaza Strip intensified.

The German airline Lufthansa yesterday also said it would extend its suspension on flights to Israel for another 24 hours . . . Other US and European carriers have said they will not fly to Israel until further notice.

The FAA on Tuesday said it told US carriers they were prohibited from flying to or from Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv for up to 24 hours, citing “the potentially hazardous situation created by the armed conflict in Israel and Gaza.” On Tuesday a rocket had hit about a mile from the airport.

Anderson said Delta made its decision “decision wholly independent” of the US Federal Aviation Administration.

“We will not allow a flight to be dispatched over Iran, Iraq, Syria, Ukraine, Afghanistan or North Korea,” he told CNBC. “We make this decision wholly independent of any geopolitical or regulatory mandate.”

White House deputy national security adviser Tony Blinken yesterday said he had not heard from the FAA yet about whether it would lift the ban or any other details about its plan for flights in the region.

“They’ve been working very closely with Israeli authorities overnight to see if the concerns raised yesterday could be alleviated and they could lift the notice but I haven’t heard from them this morning,” Blinken told CNN in an interview.

Israel has rejected the decision to bar flights to its airport. “Our airport is safe. Our airport is secure. And we hope the American carriers will be flying to Israel soon,” Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said in an interview on MSNBC yesterday. — Fin24

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