Update: Delta has officially confirmed with DansDeals that they will resume flying to Israel on 5/20!
When United merged with Continental in 2010, they inherited a rich legacy of service to Israel.
Continental launched service to Tel Aviv in August 1999 with their 777-200, just a year after the airline received their first 777. Then CEO Gordon Bethune said that while most new routes take 18 months to become profitable, Newark to Tel Aviv was profitable within 18 days.
A year later, the airline launched its 2nd daily service between Newark and Tel Aviv, making it Continental’s only international route with double daily service at the time, as it became the airline’s most profitable route.
Tower Air shut down in 2000 and TWA closed down in 2001. American took over TWA, but not wanting to pay out TWA pension liabilities, it dropped the Tel Aviv route, which left only Continental and El Al with service between the US and Israel.
After Delta bought Pan Am’s trans-Atlantic routes in 1991, it flew from JFK to Aviv through the mid-90s, before dropping the route. Delta briefly flew again from JFK to Tel Aviv in the summer of 2001 on an MD-11. It was suspended right after it launched due to a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv on 6/1/2001 that killed 21 people. The route returned, but it performed poorly due to the Second Intifada, and the route was canceled again after 9/11.
Delta tried Atlanta-Tel Aviv in 2006, before shifting that back to JFK in 2011. The airline gave up after several unsuccessful attempts to add a 2nd daily JFK-Tel Aviv flight. In 2022, it launched Boston-Tel Aviv service, and in 2023 it relaunched Atlanta-Tel Aviv service.
United added San Francisco-Tel Aviv service in 2016, Washington DC-Tel Aviv in 2019, and Chicago-Tel Aviv in 2020. United also made strides in improving kosher meals, serving freshly made Fresko kosher meals on Newark flights that are among the best kosher airline meals in the world.
USAirways’ then president (and current United CEO) Scott Kirby called its Philadelphia-Tel Aviv route among the most lucrative in their system. That route launched in 2009, but American killed it off when it merged with USAirways.
American has since tried its hand at Dallas, Miami, and JFK to Tel Aviv. It last flew JFK to Tel Aviv on October 6, 2023 and has suspended Israel service indefinitely.
During COVID, El Al suspended operations, and United remained the lifeline in and out of Tel Aviv.
But in the post-October 7th world, the US carriers have struggled to maintain service thanks to union pressure to avoid flying into a war zone and trouble insuring planes in Tel Aviv.
In 2024, Delta only flew from JFK to Tel Aviv from 6/7/24-7/30/24.
United flew from Newark to Tel Aviv from 3/2/24-4/13/24 and from 6/6/24-7/31/24.
United CEO Scott Kirby said that he had “no interest in returning to Tel Aviv only to pull out for a third time.”
But, United is very proud of its Tel Aviv flying, and didn’t want Delta to get a leg up on it. In 2024, United waited for Delta to announce a service resumption, and then announced it would resume flying to Israel a day before Delta. And this year, when Delta announced it would resume Tel Aviv service on 4/1/25, United announced it would return to Israel for a 3rd time on 3/15/25, ramping up to 2 daily flights on 3/29/25.
However, when a Houthi missile hit the grounds of Tel Aviv earlier this month, the airlines were forced to pull back for a third time.
Delta and United’s last flight to Tel Aviv was on 5/3/25.
So, when will they return to Israel?
I don’t believe that Scott Kirby’s United has any particular desire to rush back to serving Tel Aviv, short of competitive pressure from Delta.
Delta originally cancelled flights through 5/7, before extending that through 5/19.
United originally cancelled flights through 5/8, then 5/14, and then 5/18.
On 5/12, United stopped selling flights through 6/12. We reached out to United for comment, and a spokesperson responded to DansDeals that,
“We are canceling our twice-daily service between Newark and Tel Aviv through June 12. We continue to closely monitor the situation and will make decisions on resuming service with a focus on the safety of our customers and crews.”
However, while United has typically canceled flights within a few days after that, that didn’t happen this time.
Some readers got notified of cancellations, followed up by uncancellations:
In the GDS (Global Distribution System), United just extended the official cancellation through 5/26, with flights from 5/27 showing on schedule.
On the United JetStream site, United writes that,
“Due to unrest in the Middle East, our flights between EWR and TLV are cancelled through June 1, 2025. We continue to closely monitor the situation and will make decisions on whether to resume service with a focus on the safety of our customers and crews.
Our TLV flights June 2 – June 12 are still scheduled to operate; however, the flights are zeroed out and customers cannot be rebooked on nor purchase as a new booking for these dates. We stopped selling tickets to reduce the number of impacted customers in case we do need to cancel additional flights for safety reasons in the coming weeks.”
So, is the cancellation through 5/27, 6/1, or 6/12? Who knows at this point…
If you have a United flight through 6/1, United is allowing rebooking into Athens (ATH), Dubai (DXB), Frankfurt (FRA), London (LHR), Munich, (MUC), Paris, FR (CDG), or Zurich (ZRH) within 7 days of the original travel, but only on United flights and not onto partner flights.
That stands in contrast to airlines like Delta, BA, and Virgin, which have allowed rebookings onto El Al when available.
United’s refusal to rebook on other airlines may save them money, but is also costing them goodwill built up over the years. There are undoubtedly many loyalists that are booking away from United due to these policies and they may not return.
And what about Delta?
They wrote to DansDeals that they are still planning on returning to Israel on 5/20.
Is Delta playing chicken with United? That may explain why we now have 3 different dates from United for when flights are cancelled through.
But Delta has already assigned an A330-900neo to operate the 5/20 flight from JFK to Tel Aviv. That’s a pretty good sign, though it’s always subject to change.
Either way, United will certainly feel the pressure to resume Tel Aviv service if Delta resumes service on Tuesday.
As for Delta and United’s non-NYC routes, I wouldn’t expect them to return until things stabilize in the region.
Will these developments affect your short or long-term loyalty on the US-Tel Aviv route?
