United Airlines (UA, Chicago O'Hare) and Air France (AF, Paris CDG) have informed flight and cabin crew of nationality restrictions imposed by Israel following the attempted hijacking by a first officer of a flydubai flight to Tel Aviv Ben Gurion on September 30, 2026, according to internal memos cited by US blog Live and Let’s Fly and French online newspaper Mediapart.

This follows an Israeli Ministry of Transport security directive requiring airlines to verify crew citizenship and barring crew members who hold citizenship, including dual citizenship, of countries without formal diplomatic relations with Israel.

According to multiple media reports, the first officer who attempted to hijack the flydubai aircraft was an Omani national, while some early reports indicated he may have dual citizenship. ch-aviation has not been able to independently verify the nationality.

United's internal scheduling memo, cited by Live and Let's Fly, lists 29 countries whose nationals may be barred from its flights to/from Tel Aviv. They are Afghanistan, Algeria, Bangladesh, Brunei, Comoros, Cuba, Djibouti, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, North Korea, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Venezuela, and Yemen. The memo cautions that the list may not be exhaustive.

United has asked affected employees to arrange changes to their assignments and said it is incorporating the requirements into its crew-planning systems.

United Airlines declined to comment when approached by ch-aviation.

An Air France spokesperson said: "Like all airlines, Air France is required to comply with the entry requirements set by the authorities of the countries it serves, both for its customers and its staff. The employees concerned have been informed of the new rules introduced by the Israeli authorities for flights to Tel Aviv."