Lufthansa belly cargo affected amid Lebanon tensions

Heightened tensions between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon have left some airlines halting flights into Beirut, delaying some cargo shipments this week. Tensions escalated after militant organization Hezbollah fired a rocket July 27 from Lebanon into Israel, killing 12 children. Israel has responded by attacking Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. [caption id="attachment_57136938" align="alignright" width="300"] (Courtesy/Lufthansa Cargo)[/caption] “We are affected in regards to the belly capacities by the Lufthansa Group airlines,” a Lufthansa Cargo spokesperson told Air Cargo Next . “Due to the current developments in the Middle East, the airlines Lufthansa, Swiss and Eurowings of the Lufthansa Group have decided to suspend their flights to/from Beirut up to and including Aug. 5.” The German carrier will monitor the situation and decide by week’s end if more cancellations are necessary, the spokesperson said. Lufthansa Cargo did not disclose how much cargo was affected or any contingency plan for delayed cargo. Qatar Airways Cargo has resumed normal flights to Amman (AMM) and Beirut (BEY) after rescheduling nighttime flights on July 28 and 29. The carrier told Air Cargo Next that its digital booking system was open and operating normally for cargo shipments. Qatar Airways is also closely monitoring the situation and operating daily flights based on safety in the region, the spokesperson said. The U.S. State Department warned travelers on X , formerly Twitter , that flights to Lebanon may be canceled or delayed and encouraged citizens to proceed to the region with caution. “Amid heightened tension in the region, some airlines are adjusting their flight schedules in Lebanon … The Embassy encourages U.S. citizens traveling to or from Lebanon to monitor their flight status closely, to be aware that itineraries could change with little or no warning, and to make alternate plans,” the State Department stated on X on July 28. Major U.S. carriers, including Delta , United and American Airlines , do not have travel alerts for BEY nor are they showing any cancellations to the region. Year of tension Geopolitical tensions have been at the root of several shipping disruptions since the October 2023 attack on Israel by the terrorist group Hamas. Major carriers around the globe and several express shippers halted service into Tel Aviv (TLV) for months following the initial attack, except for DHL , which never stopped flights to Israel. American Airlines has issued a travel alert to TLV. Additional attacks on shipping vessels in the Red Sea , which began in December and have continued, have prompted a shift to sea-air modes of transport, contributing to increased demand in air cargo. With the “geopolitical issues right now, you have the Red Sea situation, the war in Gaza, some parts of the Ukraine war with Russia,” Brandon Fried , executive director of the Airforwarders Association , said in a July 25 webinar. “You've got considerations with what's possibly going on over in Taiwan, and that's creating some choke points for ocean cargo. “Even if [shippers] have to wait a couple of days to get space on a plane, it'll be faster than ocean,” he said. “And so, [they’re] going to use airfreight simultaneously.”

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