Summary American Airlines has prolonged its flight suspension to Israel until March 29, 2025. The airline has been more cautious than its main competitors, namely Delta Air Lines and United Airlines. The latter two airlines have also recently removed flights to Tel Aviv, Israel.
American Airlines has reportedly suspended flights to Israel up until March 29, 2025, with the airline extending its absence from the country for another few months. Suspending flights for additional several months American Airlines has extended its suspension of flights to Tel Aviv Ben Gurion International Airport (TLV) until at least March 29, 2025, the carrier’s spokesperson has confirmed to Simple Flying. Previously, the carrier axed its flights to TLV until October, being more cautious than its main competitors in the United States, namely Delta Air Lines and United Airlines.
While Delta Air Lines and United Airlines had resumed flights to TLV on June 7 and March 2, respectively, the latest flare-up of tensions in the region have resulted in both canceling their flights to Israel. Delta Air Lines once again suspended services to TLV from August 5 to at least September 6, providing an option to rebook flights through September 10. United Airlines temporarily removed its itineraries from TLV through May in April , returning to serving the country’s main airport from Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) on June 5.
Delta announced its return earlier today. Suspended since October 6 American Airlines added that in a bid to provide additional flexibility to its customers, it has extended its travel alert, enabling customers whose travel plans were affected to rebook without a fee or cancel and receive a refund. “We will continue to work closely with our partner airlines to assist customers traveling between Israel and European cities with service to the US.
” The airline’s representative noted that American Airlines has not served flights to TLV since October 6, when the war in Israel broke out. Meanwhile, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines initially suspended their flights to TLV on October 7. Current schedule data from the aviation analytics company Cirium showed that in June, United Airlines and Delta Air Lines had scheduled 18 weekly flights from the New York area to TLV.
The latter airline operated its TLV-bound flights from New York John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK). By July, United Airlines had increased its weekly frequencies to TLV to 14, while Delta Air Lines had stuck to daily flights to the Israeli airport.
So far, only Delta Air Lines has scheduled flights from JFK to TLV between September and November, with American Airlines’ departures to TLV still being shown by Cirium. However, once these are removed, Delta Air Lines will be the only airline that has preliminarily scheduled flights to TLV, with United Airlines’ last scheduled flights to the airport being in August. More than 45 flights are scheduled to operate this month, beginning on Friday.
Profiting from decreasing competition At the same time, EL AL, the flag carrier of Israel, has increased its profitability throughout the past few quarters. In its latest disclosure on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) on August 15, the Israeli airline disclosed that it ended Q2 with a net profit of $147 million, compared to a net profit of $59 million in Q2 2023. EL AL attributed its growing profits to growing load factors, increased flight activity, and its well-performing cargo unit.
The TASE filing also showcased that in September 2023, its market share at TLV was 21%. In April, May, and June, its market share was 43%, 47%, and 39%, respectively. This is a finalization of a multi-billion dollar discussion that started months ago.
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