Flights Grounded as Mideast Tensions Mount

With the Mideast on the brink of war, airlines from the United States, Europe and Asia halted flights to many cities in the troubled region Monday, as well as to such cities as Athens, Greece, the scene of past terrorist attacks.

The spate of flight suspensions makes it more difficult for those willing to take their chances to get to the region. Among the hardest hit by the loss of international air service is Tel Aviv, Israel--targeted for attack by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Most airlines said they halted flights because of high insurance premiums and because Mideast tourism has fallen sharply.

The cost of insurance for flights to the Middle East has soared in the last two weeks. The International Air Transportation Assn. said the premium for a flight to Tel Aviv increased Jan. 3 to $125,000 from $6,000. If the plane remains on the ground for more than five hours, the premium rises to $250,000.

IATA said that Lloyds of London, the sole provider of war-risk insurance, is now setting premiums on a flight-by-flight basis.

A spokeswoman for the Israeli embassy in Washington said the flight suspensions were regrettable. “I understand there are economic reasons and insurance reasons,� spokeswoman Ruth Yaron said.

Yaron said that El Al Israel Airlines--which flew four additional flights from New York to Tel Aviv last week--would continue to fly. “El Al has never stopped flying,� she said.

Trans World Airlines said that because its insurance was canceled it was suspending indefinitely flights to Tel Aviv, Istanbul, Cairo and Athens. Spokesman Don Morrison said TWA was unable to obtain insurance from the government. The U.S. Department of Transportation can provide insurance if it finds continued flights are in the national interest.

With TWA’s action, the only American air carrier to continue with flights to the Mideast is Tower Air, mostly a charter airline with twice weekly service to Israel. Tower said the flight to Israel that departed on Monday was insured by the U.S. government because private insurance was too costly. The spokesman said it was unclear whether insurance would be available for its next flight to Tel Aviv, scheduled for Wednesday.

On Monday, Pan American World Airways expanded its list of flight suspensions to include Athens, Istanbul and Ankara (Turkey) and Karachi (Pakistan). Pan Am, citing insurance costs, suspended service to Tel Aviv and Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) on Jan. 3.

Both Pan Am and TWA said they would give refunds for canceled flights.

A number of European airlines suspended Mideast flights on Monday. British Airways joined the list of airlines halting service to Tel Aviv after it flew five unscheduled weekend flights to bring an additional 1,000 people to London. British Air also suspended on Monday its flight to Dhahran in eastern Saudi Arabia from London, and said it would drop Dubai in the United Arab Emirates from its London-Dubai-Hong Kong flight.

Lufthansa German Airlines suspended Monday service from Frankfurt to Bahrain, Riyadh and Luxor (Egypt) and reduced flights to Cairo, Karachi, Dubai and Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates). Air France suspended service to nine Mideast destinations, including Riyadh, Abu Dhabi and Dubai. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines said its last flight to Tel Aviv was Monday.

Garuda Indonesia Airlines said it was suspending all flights to the Mideast and was reducing to 10 from 14 weekly flights to Europe because it would no longer refuel at Abu Dhabi. Garuda said it would restore the four European flights if it gets permission to refuel in Karachi.