Delta on April 1 to become first US carrier to resume flight services to Tel Aviv

Airline will operate 7 weekly flights between Tel Aviv and New York-JFK after pausing services since the end of July amid war; Air India to resume its Tel Aviv route on March 2

Sharon Wrobel is a tech reporter for The Times of Israel.

Illustrative: A Delta Air Lines plane lands at Logan International Airport, Jan. 26, 2023, in Boston (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
Illustrative: A Delta Air Lines plane lands at Logan International Airport, Jan. 26, 2023, in Boston (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

Delta Air Lines on Thursday became the first US carrier to announce a resumption of its Tel Aviv-New York route, starting on April 1, ending its most recent hiatus of services that began at the end of July with Israel fighting wars on multiple fronts.

The move came after Delta in October extended the cancellation of all flights to and from Israel through March 31, citing the “ongoing conflict in the region.”

Delta services on April 1 will start with seven weekly flights between Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport and New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport operated by its Airbus A330-900neo aircraft.

Air India on Thursday announced that it is restarting long-haul flight services to Tel Aviv from March 2.

Delta said its decision to resume services “follows a comprehensive security review, conducted in close coordination with government and private-sector partners.”

“The airline continues to prioritize the safety of its customers and crews and has implemented additional precautions for operations to and from Tel Aviv,” the US carrier said.

In addition, Delta announced that it has a codeshare agreement with Israel’s flagship carrier El Al. The partnership will allow Delta customers to book El Al’s nonstop flights to Tel Aviv from major US cities such as Boston, Los Angeles, Miami, and Fort Lauderdale, the carrier said.

Departures hall at Ben Gurion Airport, on Sunday August 4, 2024. (Gavriel Fiske/Times of Israel)

“With the reinstatement of Delta’s service, customers now have greater flexibility and travel options between North America and Israel,” Delta said.

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.

In recent months, US airlines completely stopped flying to Israel during heightened fighting in Gaza and Lebanon, and as tensions rose in the Middle East. American Airlines halted services to Tel Aviv until September 2025. United Airlines suspended its flights for the foreseeable future due to security concerns and said it plans to resume them when it is safe for its customers and crew.

That has left El Al as the only airline flying from Tel Aviv on direct routes to North America. The lack of competition has led to a severe shortage of seat availability while driving up airfares by 100 percent, and in some periods by much more.

With US airlines staying away, seats scarce and fares sky-high, Israeli airline Arkia announced earlier this month that it will launch flights for the first time from Tel Aviv to New York starting February 8. The new route will be operated for an initial period of three months.

Meanwhile, the gradual reduction in tensions and fighting in recent weeks and the first phase of a three-step ceasefire that came into effect on Sunday between Israel and Hamas has seen several international airlines restore their services to Israel.

An El Al flight takes off at the Ben Gurion International Airport, outside of Tel Aviv, on August 25, 2024. (Yossi Aloni/Flash90)

Earlier this week, Air France said it plans to resume services between Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Tel Aviv, on January 25 starting with five weekly flights. British Airways said this week it will resume flights between Tel Aviv and London starting April 5.

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, and Jordan, while Germany’s Lufthansa Group – whose airlines include flagship Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian Airlines, and Eurowings – said they will resume flights to and from Israel on February 1.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

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