European airlines have cancelled tickets for an unspecified number of passengers planning to attend a pro-Palestinian activist gathering after Israel raised objections. British airline Jet2.com and French carrier Air France said Saturday they had joined Germany's Lufthansa in cancelling seats on flights to Tel Aviv.
The Guardian daily reported that Jet2.com had contacted three women passengers late Friday to inform them that their seats had been cancelled on a flight to Tel Aviv scheduled to leave Manchester, northern England, at 0900 GMT on Sunday (today).
A company spokeswoman declined to comment on the number of affected passengers, adding that all the airline's tickets were non-refundable. "Jet2.com is legally required to provide advance passenger information for all passengers departing from and arriving into the UK to the appropriate immigration authorities," the company said in a statement.
"As a result of providing that information, Jet2.com was informed by the Israeli authorities that certain passengers booked to travel on flight LS907 would not be permitted to enter Israel. "We were further advised that if we were to allow them to travel, we would be responsible for their immediate return to the UK.