Air France says will resume flights to Beirut Saturday

Air France will resume services to Beirut this Saturday after suspending them due to a conflict between Israeli forces and Lebanese Hezbollah militants, the airline announced.

The French carrier will start with five weekly flights and Transavia, the low-cost subsidiary of the Air France-KLM group, will resume services to the Lebanese capital on February 13, starting with three a week.

Both airlines had ceased serving Beirut in September as tensions rose in the region, with the Israeli military bombarding Hezbollah targets in the city. A ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah has tenuously held since November.

A spokesman for Air France said the airline will progressively return to running seven flights a week to Beirut with widebody Airbus A330s and A350s. Transavia intends to be running six weekly flights by early March.

“The resumption, as well as the continuation of operations, will be the object of a regular assessment of the situation,” he added.

Wednesday’s announcement comes eight days after Air France and Transavia said they would be resuming their service to Tel Aviv.