The efforts of the British government to arrange repatriation flights for British nationals in Israel have faced problems because of issues concerning insurance, as reported in an article by The Guardian. However, other emergency flights that were arranged by US and Australian authorities have been able to land in the UK.
The UK government had arranged a flight that was scheduled to arrive at Gatwick Airport last Friday, but it was cancelled. Another attempt to arrange the flight also saw the same result. The cancelled flights were said to be because Titan Airways, its contracted airline, was reportedly facing difficulties in arranging insurance.
While UK-arranged flights faced problems, other repatriation efforts by other countries successfully reached the UK. Three flights from Israel landed at Stansted Airport last Thursday, carrying mainly US citizens. A repatriation flight to Heathrow for Australians landed last Friday.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said that a UK government-chartered flight to evacuate British nationals from Israel left the country last Friday.
“A UK government charter flight has now left Israel, with further flights expected to leave in the coming days while commercial options are limited,” a spokesperson from FCDO said.
While the FCDO did not confirm where the flight will land, FlightRadar24, a flight tracker tool, showed that a Royal Air Force A400M transport plane had left Tel Aviv and had arrived in Larnaca, Cyprus late Friday evening.
On Thursday, the FCDO announced that it would organise flights and stated that it would be the first to operate that day, catering to British nationals, dual nationals, and dependants if they were travelling with a British national normally resident in the UK. The children and other dependants of British diplomats would also be provided with seats.
It also said that the tickets would cost £300.
Since the attack on Israel by Hamas militants last Saturday, operators such as British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, easyJet, and Wizz Air suspended their flights between Israel and the UK.
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