British Airways to resume London-Tel Aviv service on April 5
Initial one flight a day to be doubled by April 20, reports say; carrier paused flights repeatedly since October 2023 amid regional conflict

British Airways will resume flights between Tel Aviv and London starting April 5, ending its most recent pause in services that began in October last year with Israel fighting wars on multiple fronts.
Services will start with one flight a day and go up to two flights a day by April 20, reports said Monday.
The airline confirmed to The Times of Israel that it will have flights in April, though the specific date was reported in Hebrew media.
The BA website on Monday was taking bookings for a flight scheduled to leave Heathrow on April 5.
Heathrow is a major hub for flights to other locations and the renewal of BA’s route is expected to lower flight prices for Israelis.
Since war broke out with Hamas in the Gaza Strip following the Palestinian terror group’s October 7, 2023, slaughter and mass abduction in southern Israel, foreign airlines have repeatedly canceled and resumed their flights to and from Israel amid rocket and drone attacks from Lebanon, Gaza, Yemen and Iraq, plus two large missile barrages from Iran. The situation has led to Israeli airlines, chiefly El Al, operating a near-monopoly with sky-high ticket prices.
In October last year British Airways said it was pausing its service until May 2025. It had previously been paused with the outbreak of war in October 2023 but later restarted.
However, on Sunday, the first phase of a three-step ceasefire came into effect between Israel and Hamas.
A separate November ceasefire halted Israel’s war with Hezbollah in Lebanon. The Iran-backed terror group began attacking Israel the day after the Hamas assault in support of Gaza but saw its leadership and weapon stockpiles decimated when fighting escalated into open war.
Another Iran-backed terror group, the Houthi rebels in Yemen, has also been firing rockets and drones at Israel. Although the Houthis escalated their attacks in recent weeks amid Israeli airstrikes in response, they have said they would stop if a ceasefire were reached in Gaza.
The gradual reduction in tensions and fighting has seen some airlines restore their services to Israel.
Last week, British low-cost carrier easyJet announced it would resume flights to Israel from June 1, having most recently suspended all of its routes to Tel Aviv following Iran’s first direct attack on Israel last April.
The Hungary-based low-cost airline Wizz Air restarted its London to Tel Aviv route last Thursday, along with flights to Amman, Jordan, while Germany’s Lufthansa Group said its airlines would resume flights from Israel on February 1.
Lufthansa’s resumption of services to Israel applies to all carriers within the group, which includes Swiss, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, and Eurowings. The group will operate daily flights to Frankfurt, Munich, Zurich, and Vienna as well as three weekly flights to Brussels and two weekly flights to Dusseldorf, the companies said in a statement.
Prior to the ceasefire deal being reached last week, senior executives of European budget airline Ryanair said the carrier expected to fly a full summer schedule to Tel Aviv this year.
Airlines are also revisiting policies for other locations in the region to which flights were suspended amid the unrest surrounding the multifront war, which has seen Israel fight Iranian-backed terror groups in several countries, as well as Iran itself.
Still, airlines remain cautious before reentering the region in full.
Air France said in a statement that its operations to and from Tel Aviv remain suspended until January 24, while its flights between Paris and Beirut will be suspended until January 31.