Following Israel’s strikes on Iran in June, several major airlines across the world have canceled flights to and from the Middle East, redirecting planes to avoid the airspace.

According to Flightradar24, in mid-June, the airspace above Iran, Israel, Jordan, Syria and Iraq emptied of commercial flights. The flight-tracking site also showed a Delta Air Lines flight from New York (JFK) to Tel Aviv (TLV) returning to JFK after flying for eight hours.

In late June, Hamad International Airport temporarily halted operations before reopening due to happenings in the Middle East. Qatar also briefly shut down its airspace on June 23 right before Iran fired missiles at a U.S. military base in the country.

CNN, using data from FlightAware, reported a 30-day time high of canceled flights worldwide in 2025 in mid-July, with 2,608 flights canceled globally.

Lufthansa has suspended flights to Tehran (IKA) and Tel Aviv until July 31. The airline previously suspended flights to Amman, Beirut and Erbil for a period of time until reinstating them June 20. Just last week, Air India revealed more than 12 of its flights and routes from New York (JFK); London (LHR); Vancouver (YVR); and Washington, D.C. (IAD) were affected.

Emirates canceled flights to and from Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Iran until July 13, while Air France notified CNN in a statement it suspended flights to Tel Aviv until further notice.

Reuters cited Eurocontrol to reveal about 650 flights to and from Europe were canceled as of mid-June. Eurocontrol, an inter-governmental organization helping to manage the continent’s airspace, also noted around 1,800 flights across Europe were affected.

Airline punctuality as a whole experienced a slump in June alone because of events in the Middle East.

Geopolitical tensions in the Middle East even impacted on-time performances for airlines like Emirates and Qatar Airways. According to Cirium, these two airlines only reached on-time performances of 71.5 percent and 73.1 percent, respectively. In Europe, Air France and Lufthansa were especially affected by the events in the Middle East.

Have any of your flights been affected? Have you ever experienced a canceled or rerouted flight because of an international conflict? Email us at letters@globaltravelerusa.com. Please include your full name and location.