United Airlines Cancels Tel Aviv Flights Through May Citing Security Concerns Amid Iran-Israel Conflict

United Airlines has canceled flights to Tel Aviv until May 2nd due to ongoing security concerns in the region. Following Iran’s drone and missile attack last week, Israel launched a counterstrike on Iranian military sites on April 18th, with the whole situation causing a major headache for airlines operating in or over the region.

United cancels Tel Aviv flights

After resuming service to Tel Aviv in early March, United Airlines has now suspended service to the city once again. The carrier ordinarily operates a daily roundtrip between Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) and Ben Gurion Airport (TLV) with its Boeing 787-10 fleet, offering a total of 4,452 weekly seats between the two airports. According to Cirium data, it had also planned a second daily flight on Saturdays and Sundays in May, but this will be shelved until May 18th.

With American Airlines and Delta Air Lines also yet to resume service to Tel Aviv, there are currently no US airlines flying to Israel, with only El Al operating direct services. Last summer, United flew to Tel Aviv from four airports – Chicago (ORD), Newark, San Francisco (SFO) and Washington (IAD) – complemented by Delta’s flights from Atlanta (ATL), Boston (BOS), and New York JFK (JFK), and AA’s daily frequency from JFK.

Impact on other airlines

Other global carriers serving Tel Aviv have also canceled flights to the city due to the security situation. This includes Dutch flag carrier KLM, which has scrapped all flights until Tuesday; Air Canada, which will suspend operations until June 30th; easyJet, which won’t return to Tel Aviv until October, having relaunched services less than a month ago; and Turkish Airlines, which won’t reinstate flights until March 2025.

Several carriers, including the likes of Air India, British Airways, Lufthansa and Wizz Air, have canceled services on select days but will continue operating flights for the time being.

Photo: Spyros Vasileiou | Shutterstock

Last month, Delta Air Lines announced plans to resume service to Tel Aviv on June 7th following “an extensive security risk assessment.” This will be a daily flight from New York JFK (JFK) that was suspended in October 2023 in the wake of the Hamas attacks. Delta customers weren’t overly impacted owing to the airline’s codeshare agreement with El Al, which connects Tel Aviv with several US airports, including Boston, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, JFK, Newark, and Los Angeles.

Related

Airlines Reroute Flights Again As Iran Shuts Airspace For Israel Retaliatory Strike

While some airlines have returned to Iran’s airspace, others have maintained avoidance as tensions continue to rise in the region.

The situation is also forcing carriers flying over the region to re-route, mainly to avoid Iranian airspace. This includes SAS’ nonstop between Copenhagen and Bangkok, and Qantas’ rerouting of its Perth-London service.

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