US airlines set to resume Israel flights after pauses due to October 7, Iran attack
United, Delta to start flying to New York daily this week after temporary halts in service; American Airlines routes still paused; Air Canada extends suspension to August
United Airlines and Delta Airlines are set to resume flights to Israel this week, after long pauses in service due to the ongoing war with Hamas since October 7 and Iran’s unprecedented drone and missile attack in April.
Israel’s flag carrier El Al has been one of the only airlines with regular flights since October 7 after most foreign carriers halted services, while tourists have mostly stayed away since the brutal assault by Hamas on southern Israel and amid the ensuing war.
United is set to resume flights to Israel on Thursday, after a suspension of several weeks. The airline was the first American carrier to resume direct flights to Israel in March since pausing after October 7, but temporarily halted service again a few weeks later following the Iranian attack.
Daily flights to Newark are currently scheduled to resume on June 6, and twice daily from June 20.
Before October 7, United operated four direct flights daily to Tel Aviv from Newark, San Francisco, Washington and Chicago.
Delta is set to resume service to Israel on Friday, with a daily flight to New York’s JFK airport.
“The decision to resume the route on June 7, 2024, which was temporarily suspended in October 2023, follows an extensive security risk assessment by the airline,” the airline said in a statement. “Delta continues to closely monitor the situation in Israel in conjunction with government and private-sector partners.”
American Airlines has not resumed flights to Israel since October 7 and at the time of writing all routes were to remain suspended until the end of October this year.
Air Canada, which like United resumed flights to Israel in March and paused after the Iranian attack in April, was also due to resume flights this month but recently extended the suspension to August.
Other foreign carriers, such as Lufthansa, Swiss, and British Airways, have already resumed their Israel routes on a limited basis.
Plane ticket prices to and from Israel have more than doubled in recent months due to surplus demand and a shortage of supply of flights, as foreign carriers sluggishly resumed services amid the ongoing fighting with Hamas in Gaza. When war broke out in the aftermath of the terror group’s October 7 onslaught in southern Israel, almost all major international airlines suspended flights to Tel Aviv.
Sharon Wrobel contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.