Cancellation of Tel Aviv route by American Airlines may be ‘political’

Israeli business journal TheMarker says the announced cancellation of the Tel Aviv-Philadelphia route by American Airlines may have been caused by political considerations.

While American says the route is shutting down because it loses money, TheMarker quotes industry sources who say the route was profitable. “The past year hasn’t been easy for the airline industry in general, but that’s far from saying that the route wasn’t profitable. No one would have operated a money-losing route for so many years,” a source says.

Passenger figures for 2015 show a 2.7 percent rise over the same period in 2014, the Israel Airport Authority says.

American is part of the OneWorld alliance of airlines, which means it shares flights and other services with Arab carriers such as Royal Jordanian and Qatar Airways. According to TheMarker, American’s Israel office was not told about the route’s closure before it was made public, and there is concern that the move comes to bolster the airline’s ties to its Arab counterparts.