Air Astana cancels flights to Doha, Dubai on June 24 amid escalation of Middle East conflictNational carrier Air Astana is canceling flights to Doha and Dubai on June 24 due to the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East, the airline's press service reported.The affected flights include Astana-Dubai-Astana, Almaty-Dubai-Almaty, and the charter flight Shymkent-Doha-Shymkent."The airline continues to closely monitor the situation and will consider resuming flights from June 25 as the situation improves," said a message released on Monday.Air Astana stated that it is closely monitoring the situation and will inform about any subsequent changes.Earlier reports indicated that Air Astana and its subsidiary FlyArystan were altering flight routes due to the closure of Iranian and Iraqi airspace. Flights to Sharm El-Sheikh, Dubai, Doha, and Medina were planned to reroute around the airspace of Iran and Iraq.Later, Air Astana announced the temporary suspension of the Atyrau-Dubai route starting June 28 due to a significant increase in flight time. Meanwhile, flights to Dubai from Astana and Almaty continued, rerouting around the territory of Iran and Iraq.On the night of June 12, Israel launched massive strikes against Iran. The stated goal of the operation was to halt Tehran's work on its nuclear program. In response, the Iranian side began striking Israeli territory.Air Astana is Kazakhstan's largest airline. Its 100% subsidiary is the low-cost carrier FlyArystan. Shareholders of the company include the state fund Samruk-Kazyna (41%), British BAE Systems (16.95%), and the Unified Accumulative Pension Fund (UAPF) (6.51%). CITIBANK, N.A.-NY is listed as the nominal holder of 23.6% of the shares. (ICE ALMATY)

Fonte notizia: INTERFAX