United Airlines Cancels Flights to Tel Aviv in Aftermath of Houthi Missile Attack On Airport

United Airlines and Delta Air Lines have canceled their daily flights from New York to Tel Aviv for the next few days following a ballistic missile strike by Yemen's Houthi rebels. The missile impacted within the perimeter for Tel Aviv Ben Gurion Airport, injuring eight people.

United Airlines has canceled its twice-daily service from Newark to Tel Aviv until May 8 at the earliest after a ballistic missile fired by Houthi rebels in Yemen struck the outskirts of Tel Aviv Ben Gurion Airport on Sunday morning.

According to local officials, eight people were injured by shrapnel in the attack, although the airport was not damaged and the airport was allowed to reopen after a short ground stop.

smoke seen billowing into the sky with an El Al aircraft parked at the gate at Tel Aviv Airport in the foreground. — Eyewitnesses waiting to catch their flights at Ben Gurion Airport captured the moment that smoke from the missile strike billowed into the air.

Despite reassurances from Israeli authorities, most international airlines have canceled flights to Tel Aviv at least for the next few days as they evaluate the developing security situation.

Sunday morning’s missile attack triggered an emergency ‘Red Alert’ across Central Israel, sending millions of people into bomb shelters for the fourth time this weekend.

In a statement, the Israel Defense Force confirmed that a ballistic missile fired from Yemen managed to evade a multi-million-dollar air defense interceptor and landed within the perimeter of Israel’s primary airport.

At the time of the attack, United Airlines flight UA-90 from Newark to Tel Aviv was already in the air and heading towards Israel. United Airlines allowed this flight to continue onto Israel, where it landed at around 6:00 pm.

The aircraft, a five-year-old Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner, is expected to depart Tel Aviv later this evening.

In a statement, a spokesperson for United Airlines said: “We have canceled our twice-daily service between Newark and Tel Aviv while we closely monitor the situation. We will make decisions on resuming service with a focus on the safety of our customers and crew.”

The aftermath of a Houthi rebel missile attack on Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv — Roads around Ben Gurion were temporarily blocked in the aftermath of the missile strike.

Delta Air Lines has also canceled its daily departure from New York JFK to Tel Aviv for the next few days. Across Europe, international carriers, including the likes of Air France, British Airways, Brussels Airlines, Lufthansa, Ryanair, and Wizz, have all grounded flights to Israel.

Despite Sunday’s attack, the European Air Safety Agency (EASA) withdrew a so-called ‘Conflict Zone Information Bulletin‘ for Israel in January.

Mateusz Maszczynski

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.