- Israir has received US Department of Transportation approval to start selling tickets for nonstop Tel Aviv to New York flights beginning October 19, 2026, though the FAA has yet to grant final operating approval.
- What happens to ticket holders if the FAA approval doesn’t come through in time.
- Why the two Airbus A330s Israir is using were sitting in long-term storage after being retired by American Airlines in 2020.
- How Israir’s return puts it into a market getting more competitive by the month, with United and Delta both restarting New York to Tel Aviv service in September.
- The recent Slovenia landing denial and Luton Airport tug incidents Israir says targeted its aircraft.
Israel’s low-cost airline Israir has confirmed that it plans to launch non-stop long-haul flights between Tel Aviv and New York beginning October 19, 2026, after securing approval from the US Department of Transportation to start selling tickets.
Israir, which is Israel’s third-largest airline after El Al and Arkia, submitted an application to the U.S. DOT in March 2025 seeking permission to start flights to the New York region using Airbus A330 aircraft.
More than a year after the application was submitted, Israir announced on Tuesday that it had received a letter from the DOT telling the airline that it could go ahead and start selling tickets for the service, although the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has yet to grant full operating approval.
Israir has set October 19 as a sort of tentative date from which flights will start. If the FAA grants approval before this date, Israir says it will move its plans forward, but if it takes longer, Israir will offer passengers full refunds or a transfer onto an alternative flight.
The new service is actually a service resumption, as Israir operated scheduled and charter services between Tel Aviv and the United States from 2003 and 2009 when it suspended its operations due to ‘market conditions.’
Since late 2023, however, service between the United States and Israel has largely been monopolized by Israeli flag carrier El Al, because U.S.-based carriers have repeatedly pulled out of the market due to security concerns in the region.
For now, both Delta and United Airlines plan to resume services from New York to Tel Aviv towards the end of 2026, meaning that Israir could be reentering the market just as competition heats up. The restart dates by Delta and United are, however, subject to change at short notice due to how dynamic the security situation in the region is.
Israir recently acquired two Airbus A330 widebody aircraft that it will use to operate its long-haul transatlantic flights.
The two planes were originally delivered brand new to US Airways in 2010 before joining the American Airlines fleet when the two carriers merged. In 2020, however, American Airlines put the airplanes into long-term storage, and they never returned to fly for the carrier.
Israir bought the planes in June 2026 and has been using them for flights across its European network.
The Tel Aviv to New York service will operate six times per week, with Israir also planning to operate occasional charter services.
Israir has made headlines in recent months over alleged political targeting of its services. In June, the airline’s chief executive claimed that authorities in Slovenia refused permission for one of its planes to land in the capital, Ljubljana, for political reasons.
Israir flight 6H-755 departed Tel Aviv at around 9:20 am on June 3 for the three-hour flight to Ljubljana, but as the Airbus A320 approached the Slovenian border, the pilots were reportedly told they would not be permitted to land in Ljubljana as planned.
Instead, the plane ended up diverting to Zagreb in neighboring Croatia, where passengers had to complete their journeys by road.
And the following month, Israir claimed its aircraft had been deliberately targeted by vandals at London Luton Airport, with ground service vehicles colliding with the carrier’s planes on three occasions in less than a year.
The latest incident occurred on Friday, July 17, when a tug vehicle, which pushes planes back from the gate, struck the Airbus A320 aircraft that was due to operate the five and a half hour flight to Tel Aviv.
Passengers were stuck on the aircraft for about an hour without air conditioning during a heatwave while engineers assessed whether the damage caused to the aircraft was a quick fix. In the end, however, the flight had to be cancelled.
Senior Israeli aviation officials have since told news channel N12 that they suspect ‘foul play’ could be responsible and have demanded local authorities in England take action to prevent a repeat occurrence.
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