Will American Begin Flying Miami-Tel Aviv Next Year?

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The Marker (Hebrew) reports that American is examining adding nonstop service between Miami and Tel Aviv in spring/summer 2015 addition to keeping the nonstop service between Philadelphia and Tel Aviv.

I’ve said it several times that I expect to see American eventually start flying from Miami and JFK to Tel Aviv.  I also question the long-term viability of the Philadelphia-Tel Aviv route or even the Philadelphia and Phoenix hubs entirely.

I still have yet to hear the outcome of the 13 year old battle between former Israeli TWA employees who lost their pensions and have been fighting to get American to make good on them ever since they took over selected TWA assets.  I’m sure that we’ll hear about some sort of agreement before an American branded airplane lands in Ben Gurion, lest those employees attempt to seize the aircraft.

Developing, but great to hear rumblings about more direct flights between the US and Israel!

HT: LAXtraveler, via DDF


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17 Comments On "Will American Begin Flying Miami-Tel Aviv Next Year?"

All opinions expressed below are user generated and the opinions aren’t provided, reviewed or endorsed by any advertiser or DansDeals.

rda

Stupid question:
AA went bankrupt. USAir is using using the name because they like it better.
Do the TWA liabilities that went to AA necessarily travel over to USAir?

Dan

@rda:
AA declared bankruptcy to save money. They survived just fine and could have remained standalone but USAirways paid a ton of money to buy them out so they were better off selling out than to keep flying.

So yes, everything is assumed by USAirways.

The more questionable aspect is TWA. AA didn’t merge with TWA, they cherry-picked what they liked off of its carcass. Still, they appeared to have come to a settlement with the ex-TWA employees but they didn’t pay what they promised.

Interesting case no doubt.

yaakov

I wonder how many BA points it will be…

Joe

#1- Learn the difference between a Chapter 7 and Chapter 11. Then read the restructuring documents 🙂

@Dan you could explain it better by describing the differences between acquisitions and mergers, but then who would know what you’re talking about 🙂

At the end of the day, don’t rely on the Israelis to live by our American legal nuances (especially not the union workers who would always just want more money no matter which way the wind is actually blowing).

scott t

I think the PHX hub has every reason to be very nervous about a significant pull down. I’m not so sure about PHL. PHL is an operational hairball and a darn crappy facility, but it’s a money maker. US owns PHL and it matters a lot more than PHX does or ever will. I loathe PHL as a hub airport, but sadly acknowledge that it aint going anywhere soon.

chff

AA did specifically NOT buy from TWA the TLV route/assets and still they haven’t flown there

dave

dan
will life time aa platinum status survive merger?

Dan

@scott t:
As Southwest continues to add flights there it will stop being a moneymaker.
And it’s inefficient for AA to have 2 international hubs within 94 miles as the crow flies.

I think PHL will keep more service than a spoke city but may wind up like what United is doing to CLE. Nonstop service to a couple dozen cities where there is local demand but end connecting passenger hub service.

Once that downward spiral starts it’s hard to see PHL-TLV operating, but only time will tell.
JFK and MIA to TLV are just very obvious options for AA as this merger completes.

Dan

@chff:
True. But AA still settled so they must have some claim. And for whatever reason they haven’t made good on that settlement.

@dave:
Yes.

Marc

Why can’t/wont AA fly from NY/NJ to TLV? Why Miami specifically?

Dan

@Marc:
Because they have a hub in MIA and nobody else flies that route.
They also have a hub in JFK and I expect they will fly JFK-TLV as well in due time.

Miel Michael

We have a saying here in Philadelphia: ‘To live in Philadelphia is to hate US Air’. Sadly, some of your commentators are right about PHL as a hub. However, USAir owns 85% of the slots and has a monopoly here. Regretfully they were successful in pushing Southwest Air to cancel their competing Boston flights and the next day US Air doubled the cost of the USAir Boston flight.
US AIR despises competition and kills on prices when they dispose of it. The glaring example here is when a low cost carrier came in and charged $29-$39 for PHL to Pittsburgh. USAir was forced to lower their $575 to $685 flights (YES! $685 flights) to Pittsburgh to $29. Afetr 6 months, US Air forced them out of the market by staying at the introductory $29 price. The next day, USAir jacked it back to $600 plus.
What US Air is most famous for here is simply cancelling a regional flight on a moment’s notice.
So now that they have cancelled their agreement with Amex centurion, I have no reason to fly them. I used to fly them 99% of the time. I fly SouthWest for Florida and love the free flight changes. I fly Delta when I can. I take British to London from PHL instead of USAir.
Now the Tel Aviv flight. Dan, you are wrong. That flight is always packed and they are making a killing even with the unbelievably horrendous steward service (even in business it is terrible). Not enough space to recite why. I used to take USAir to Eretz Yisrael twice a year. Now I take Amtrak to Newark Airport and fly from there…anything to avoid USAir.
The chickens will come home to roost eventually and USAir will take a beating for their years of terrible customer service. For that to happen we need Southwest to expand not contract.
Thanks for the great website Dan! Am Yisrael Chai v’kayam.

Dan

@Miel Michael:
If they keep the PHL hub then the TLV flight will stick around.

But if they determine that having 2 hubs within 100 miles is overkill then PHL will be the one to go. And with it the TLV flight.

This will take time. It took United 3 years to kill CLE after merging with Continental.

Within 5 years Phoenix will not have hub operations. The question is if PHL will retain the hub or not. Operationally it duplicates JFK, so it’s a matter of whether local traffic will support a full hub or if it will be downsized.

My guess is that within 5 years it is downsized to a smaller hub or a large focus city and that the TLV flight along with many other international flights end.

But for now nothing will change at all.

John

PHL-TLV will stay as long as TEVA is in the philly area, they subsidize that flight.

David staten island

We need good price

Kachnik

I have heard that US Air makes a ton of money just off of cargo on the PHL-TLV route

Sam

Any news on that TLV MIA direct flight? there are so many Israelis and Jewish people in Miami metro. (the 3rd largest Jewish population in the US and I think also in the world outside Israel. Why there is not a single direct flight? I am sure the flight will be loaded!!

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