Delta Halts Flights Between New York & Tel Aviv Through Year’s End

Delta Air Lines is the latest international carrier to extend its cancelation of flights to Israel, amid the growing war in Israel’s north with Hezbollah.

Delta announced Thursday it is pausing all flights between New York-JFK and Tel Aviv through December 31, citing escalating security concerns. This extends a prior pause which was set to end on September 30. IDF operations are approaching the one year mark in Gaza, while Israel’s war cabinet has approved fresh offensive operations against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

Starting a month ago United Airlines removed all flights to Israel from its booking and scheduling system. “Our flights to Tel Aviv remain suspended – we look forward to resuming flights as soon as it’s safe for our customers and crew,” it said early August.

Some European airlines have actually recently resumed operations to Israel. That current a total of three major US companies have halted their service to Tel Aviv has angered Israeli officials and pro-Israel pundits:

The refusal by the top three US airlines to fly to Israel since the Oct. 7 terrorist attack has sent fares soaring for flights to Tel Aviv — and has essentially led to an economic boycott that benefits its sworn enemy Iran, critics charged.

Delta, United and American have upheld a nearly yearlong suspension of direct flights to Israel in the wake of the Hamas massacre, leaving national carrier El Al as the only airline offering non-stop service. Prices, however, have increased nearly threefold.

“The American carriers are playing into Iran’s game,” Eyal Hulata, who served as national security adviser to two Israeli prime ministers, told Bari Weiss’ online media outlet The Free Press.

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An Israeli publication has offered the following list of carriers who previously canceled service to Tel Aviv as follows…

(This item is up-to-date as of September 12, 2024).

• United Airlines has canceled flights to Israel til further notice, while Delta has canceled flights until September 30 [now extended to Dec.31] (flights will continue to operate under an El-Al codeshare) American Airlines has canceled flights until March 2025. This means El Al is currently the sole airline operating direct flights between the US and Israel.
• Croatia Airlines has suspended its flights without specifying a return date.
• Vueling from Spain has previously canceled its flights to and from Israel until October, yet upon checking the company’s website, it seems all flights have been removed until January of next year. Vueling has not issued an official announcement regarding the continuation of operations in Israel, and flights may be added to the system later.
• LOT Polish Airlines has resumed flights to and from Israel on Sept. 6.
• The Lufthansa Group, which includes Swiss, Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, and Eurowings, resumed flights as of Sept. 5. The German airline said it was halting all connections to and from Tel Aviv and Tehran through Sept. 19. The airline had resumed its flights to Israel on Sept. 5. Flights to Beirut will only resume Sept. 30.
• Air Baltic said it would soon resume flights to Israel
• Ryanair from Ireland has canceled flights to Israel until October 26.
• Air India has suspended flights to and from Israel until October 24, and ticket sales on its website are blocked until October 27.
• Iberia has extended its flight cancellations to Israel until August 28.
• ITA Airways resumed flights on Sept. 3.
• Air France has announced that it would not fly to Israel until Oct. 26 at the earliest.
• The low-cost Transavia canceled flights to Tel Aviv through March 31, 2025.