Arkia Airlines announced on Sunday that due to a sudden change in Jordanian policy, several flights scheduled to depart from Aqaba airport to Europe and Bangkok were cancelled, leaving hundreds of Israelis stranded in Jordan.
Jordan’s decision came as a surprise to Israeli authorities. Channel 12 reported that discussions were underway between Israeli aviation and security officials and their Jordanian counterparts to reach an immediate solution.
However, the discussions apparently did not bear fruit, and later on Sunday, Arkia cancelled all flights from Aqaba until further notice.
According to Arkia, Jordanian authorities suddenly refused to approve flights operated by chartered European aircraft. As a result, Arkia flights set to depart from Aqaba as an alternative to Ben-Gurion were cancelled.
One of the hundreds of Israelis stuck in Aqaba described the situation to Channel 12: “There is no Arkia representative here, or any other Israeli representative. There is no water or food. People are sitting on the floor in total despair, and children are crying. The original flight was to Bangkok, and it had already been delayed several times. People have lost thousands of dollars on connecting flights and hotels. I contacted the Foreign Ministry’s emergency center, but they had no way to help us.”
A statement from Arkia said: “Following the immediate and unexpected policy change, and in the absence of real‑time regulatory approvals, several flights scheduled to depart from Aqaba Airport are not authorized to operate. As a result, Arkia is forced to cancel some flights from this airport until further notice.”
The company added that part of its operations will be moved to Taba Airport, subject to operational capabilities and required approvals. “Arkia is working with the relevant authorities in an effort to resume operations as soon as possible and will update its passengers regularly regarding flight status.
“The company apologizes to its customers for the inconvenience and emphasizes that these decisions are beyond its control during an especially challenging period for the aviation industry.”
(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)
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6 Responses
Jordan receives a great deal of aid from the USA. I certainly hope that President Trump can straighten this out very quickly.
It’s unfathomable how the stupid U.N. can’t flex their influence upon the weird Jordanian government! It seems they’re only alert when it’s Israeli punishment of Palestinians. Where is the world? Where is America? Why can’t any Jordanian alliance government get involved? Why isn’t this called a humanitarian crisis? Where are all the powerful American legislators? This seems so ridiculously awkward. 😳
Because nobody cares about stranded Israelis obviously
Not so smart Jews depending on the Jordanians, they’ll be lucky to get out of there alive!!
To Reb Emes:
Most of the times your comment is excellent.
Perhaps what is happening now is, just maybe, In Arad and Dimona that Shabbos and
מוצאי שבת
Some people lost their homes some people lost part of their body, as we speak right now , there are children in Israel that are right now in hospitals missing a hand missing a leg and this happened recently during the current war. Maybe Hashem is very upset, if we have extra time to travel by land by sea by plane through Jordan Egypt Cyprus then to many countries all over Europe and then to USA, maybe Hashem wants us to feel just a drop the pain that the families are going through and maybe Hashem is eagerly waiting for my simple
תפלה , maybe Hashem wants us to daven and spend our free time davening even
though we are not a big
ראש הישיבה.
I am not sure but maybe.
I didn’t say it to mean that I didn’t care. I was responding to the comment before mine which was asking why nothing was being done