
United Airlines is reportedly planning to resume non-stop flights from New York to Tel Aviv next month, according to Israeli media, although the airline is remaining tight-lipped on the matter with a spokesperson saying that it has no official news to share on the matter.
If Israeli reports are correct, however, the airline will restart flights from its Newark hub as a once daily non-stop service beginning March 13.
Should United pull off the flight resumption as early as next month, then it will beat Delta Air Lines as the first US-based carrier to restart Israel flights since 2024, when both carriers quickly suspended flights to Tel Aviv over the deteriorating security situation in the region.
This will mark the third time that United Airlines has resumed flights to Israel with the Hamas terror atrocity in October 2023. The airline returned to Israel in early 2024 but quickly suspended flights when the country came under a missile and drone attack by Iran.
The airline once again attempted to resume flights, but the service was pulled for a second time after the security situation between Israel and Iran started to deteriorate.
Following last month’s ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, a growing number of airlines have announced that they’ll restart service to Israel. A slew of European carriers have already resumed non-stop service, while several others are expected to join suit in the coming months.
International airlines had been wary of restarting flights to Israel due to local compensation laws that would require carriers to shell out compensation to passengers even if flights were canceled as a result of security concerns.
Delta and United Airlines had been accused of waging a defacto boycott on Israel for their refusal to resume non-stop flights to Israel despite the fact that El Al Israel Airlines continued to serve the United States.
While Delta and United could soon resume flights to Israel, American Airlines has no plans to return to the country until Summer 2025 at the earliest.
For the time being, United has not put tickets back on sale, suggesting that the actual start date of Tel Aviv flights is still up in the air.
Mateusz Maszczynski honed his skills as an international flight attendant at the most prominent airline in the Middle East and has been flying ever since... most recently for a well known European airline. Matt is passionate about the aviation industry and has become an expert in passenger experience and human-centric stories. Always keeping an ear close to the ground, Matt's industry insights, analysis and news coverage is frequently relied upon by some of the biggest names in journalism.
“Trumps Forced Ceasefire Deal…”??? Leave the politics out… or if you must, note that it was under Biden’s watch that the ceasefire was brokered.