Authorities from Venezuela and Panama on Friday said normal air travel had resumed between the countries after Panama had earlier accused Venezuela of blocking a plane carrying ex-presidents en route to Caracas to observe Sunday's election. Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino said on social media earlier on Friday that the plane had been denied permission to take off as long as the former presidents were on board. One of the passengers, former Mexican President Vicente Fox, shared a video from Tocumen Airport in Panama, in which he said: "(Venezuela President) Nicolas Maduro has caused all Copa flights heading to Caracas and Venezuela to be suspended." Flights had since resumed, Panama's Foreign Minister Javier Martinez-Acha said later on Friday. "The Venezuelan government blocked the airspace of its country to Copa Airlines for several hours," he said. Among the passengers on the plane, as well as Fox, were Panama's Mireya Moscoso, Costa Rica's Miguel Angel Rodriguez and Bolivia's Jorge Quiroga. They said at a press conference that they would like to be in Venezuela, but did not specify if they would still seek to travel there. Venezuela's state aerospace authority and the country's transportation minister said Mulino's earlier assertion was false and posted photos of Copa Airlines operating in Venezuelan airspace from flight tracking website FlightRadar.<br/>
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Flights at Beirut airport have been cancelled or delayed with Lebanon's Middle East Airlines (MEA) saying disruptions to its schedule were related to insurance risks, as tensions escalate between Israel and armed political group Hezbollah. Lufthansa Monday said it had suspended five routes to and from Beirut by the group's carriers Swiss International Air Lines, Eurowings and Lufthansa up to and including July 30 "in an abundance of caution". A rocket strike that killed 12 teenagers and children in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Saturday has added to concerns that Israel and the Iran-backed group could engage in a full-scale war. Israel's security cabinet on Sunday authorised the government to respond to the strike. Hezbollah denied any responsibility for the attack, the deadliest in Israel or Israeli-annexed territory since Hamas' Oct. 7 assault sparked the war in Gaza, which has since spread to several fronts. Beirut airport's flight information board and flight tracking website Flightradar24 show Turkish Airlines also cancelled two flights overnight on Sunday. Turkey-based budget carrier SunExpress, Turkish Airlines subsidiary AJet, Greek carrier Aegean Airlines, Ethiopian Air and MEA have also cancelled flights scheduled to land in Beirut on Monday, Flightradar24 shows.<br/>
Air India's management believes that the airline will be able to continue growing its network and attain full potential in long-haul markets such as the United States as it takes delivery of more new widebody aircraft. With the upcoming merger with Vistara, the airline will see more widebody aircraft inducted into its fleet, along with the delivery of new Boeing and Airbus widebody aircraft from Air India's record-breaking order last year. Since Air India's privatization, the airline has experienced significant growth in its route network and fleet strength. With a record-breaking order of 470 aircraft last year, which will see the airline's narrowbody and widebody fleet grow with new Boeing and Airbus aircraft, Air India can finally expand into various underserved markets<br/>While the airline has previously operated Boeing 777s and Boeing 787s, the carrier has now begun operating the Airbus A350-900s, which will soon be deployed on services to London Heathrow and even the US. Air India's CEO - Campbell Wilson, told Simple Flying the following during a media roundtable at the Farnborough Airshow: "Our network has expanded a lot in most of the geographies we serve. In fact, I think in all of the geographies. In the UK, we've increased the number of flights by 75% since privatization. - the amount of capacity by double. The A350 will be doing double daily, Delhi-London Heathrow, in September. In the US, we've added a lot of capacity into San Francisco. We inaugurated Mumbai-San Francisco and Bangalore-San Francisco. We've added capacity into New York. We're increasing frequency in Toronto, and we're looking at potentially another couple of destinations in the reasonably near future in North America. We see a big opportunity."<br/>