Ryanair has announced the cancellation of flights to and from Israel until further notice.

The Irish low-cost airline was scheduled to resume flights to Israel in October, but the announcement has put travel plans into fresh turmoil.

The airline, which connects several European countries to Tel Aviv and Eilat, said on Thursday that it has cancelled all flights to and from Israel until October 27, after the Jewish holidays. 

The announcement comes a month after Ryanair said it would resume flights at the end of September.

Ryanair blamed “operating restrictions” for the decision – but the JC has been unable to confirm what these restrictions are.

In a statement, the company said the “regrettable” cancellations were made because of “operating restrictions which are beyond our control.

“Affected passengers will be notified of their options via email and SMS, and passengers are advised to download the Ryanair app to check for the latest flight updates,” the airline said.

After cancelling flights soon after October 7, the airline resumed flying to Tel Aviv on June 3, with dozens of weekly departures and arrivals.

The Israel Airports Authority decided to halt activity at Ben Gurion Airport’s Terminal 1 after the war in Gaza broke out. As a result, all flights departing from Ben Gurion were forced to use Terminal 3, which charges higher passenger fees.

On February 1, Ryanair became the first low-cost carrier to resume direct flights to Israel and had no choice but to use Terminal 3.

Another low-cost airline, EasyJet, suspended flights to Tel Aviv following Iran's missile and drone attack in April.

The airline halted flights until October 27 at the earliest, blaming "the continued evolving situation in Israel".

Israel’s national flag carrier El Al continued to fly between the UK and Tel Aviv.