Rather Than Having to Fly Israelis, Kuwait Airways Shuts Inter-European Routes

Rather than allow Israeli citizens to fly on its planes, Kuwait Airways has chosen to shut down all of its inter-European routes, according to a report on Jewish Business News.

Faced with legal action over its discriminatory practice from the Lawfare Project, a U.S.-based nonprofit legal group, the airline has decided to curtail flights that would be booked by Israelis.

In mid-April, Lawfare Project Swiss Council Philippe Grumbach filed an administrative complaint with the Swiss Federal Office of Civil Aviation as well as a criminal complaint with the Prosecutor General against Kuwait Airways Corporation on behalf of an Israeli national living in Switzerland who was denied a ticket on the Kuwait Airways flight from Geneva to Frankfurt, Germany.

Earlier this year, Kuwait Airways canceled its route between New York City and London rather than serve Israeli travelers. That decision came after the U.S. Department of Transportation found that the airline’s refusal to allow Israeli citizens to fly on the route amounted to “unreasonable discrimination” because Israeli passport holders have the legal right to travel between the United States and the United Kingdom.