Update: Israel approved measures on Sunday to force all arriving passengers into quarantine hotels and flights should be allowed to resume, though several have already been cancelled.
United flight 90 that departed from Newark to Tel Aviv yesterday arrived on time, but things went wrong from there.
Passengers were expected to be transported by Israel to quarantine hotels by the state of Israel, but that never happened. Passengers report that they were allowed to take taxis to their home and that Israel never collected their quarantine documentation.
In response, Prime Minister Netanyahu cancelled all inbound flights until the situation is sorted out.
That doesn’t affect too many flights as the only major commercial airlines flying to Israel these days are Ethiopian from Addis Ababa and United from Newark. United cancelled their flights today, tomorrow, and Tuesday to Tel Aviv, but they still have Monday’s flight to Tel Aviv on the schedule. Daily flights starting on Wednesday are showing as operating.
United’s Tel Aviv to Newark flights are showing as cancelled on Monday and Wednesday, with daily flights returning on Thursday.
Ethiopian still has a flight from Addis Ababa to Tel Aviv tomorrow showing that it is on time, though it remains to be seen if that will operate.
Israel doesn’t expect a regular flight schedule to resume until September. I’d assume we’ll see more flights resume over the coming months, but the full pre-coronavirus schedule will take time to return.
Do you have any plans to fly to or from Israel in the coming months?
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99 Comments On "Israel Temporarily Suspends All Flights To Israel; Return To Regular Flight Schedule Not Expected Until September"
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I have my shvigger by me for pesach how will she get back?
Oy Vey!!
Good luck with that one lol
1. Why did she come if its encouraged to be socially distanced? 2. Why did she come from Israel to the US and expect to have a smooth sailing on her return trip? She will be with you for a while
Maybe Lisa likes her company
maybe they will allow an exception for a serious humanitarian crisis
According to the United site flight 91 is leaving for Newark at 1 p.m. Israel time Sunday afternoon. You may still be able to make it. There may also be flights later this week.
Send her private:(
I’m confused. I actually thought all international flights were canceled to Israel, in or out.
Nope.
Could you please let us know what’s going on if US citizens could get in to Isreal since they are some people who say that they were able to get in I don’t want to book tickets and fly and need to return please let us know thank you dan for all the info
Planning and hoping to fly for shavuot May 25 to May 31. hoping and praying
Me too!
Make other plans
Me too!
Supposed to go on United May 26 for Shavuos. Safe to re-schedule?
Flying May 18th to Israel with Air Serbia. As of now the wedding is going on as scheduled. Trip.com is refusing to refund or make a free change to a future flight as the flight is still operating as of today. I’m reluctant to say that they will refund me even if the flight is cancelled. What are others experiencing with Trip.com?
The wedding will go on…… in a Rabbi’s office with a bottle of wine and some eidim(witnesses)
Thanks for the information I couldn’t live without
No problem. Anyone that thinks a typical wedding is still going on should be advised otherwise. It’s not obvious to many
I’m ticketed on the same flight as you. Air Serbia (which isn’t even currently operating any flights) will surely cancel the flight eventually, unless this situation takes a miraculous turn for the better. For now, just sit and wait.
I’m not sure how you booked your flight but from what I’ve been hearing Trip.com isnt being so forgiving by refunding cancelled flights
I booked mine through Chase (UR points).
However difficult it will be for you to get your money back, it’s certainly not going to be any easier as long as the airline hasn’t even cancelled the flight yet.
Air Serbia is last minute they cancel usually a week before just happened to me supposed to go 4/20 rebooked for 6/29 hopefully won’t be cancelled again.but there was no extra fee when canceled fyi Serbia winter starts from 8/1-2/1 I think u won’t be able to travel those times because they only have one flight a day by the time u reach Serbia From New York the flight from Serbia to Isreal already left
What website did you book on?
Will yeshivas and seminaries open? Because if yes I have a son and a daughter to send in a week
Will it happen?
You should assume that yeshivot and seminars are over for the year. Even if things *start* opening on 1-May, it’ll take a while for everything to open, and then it’ll take another while until everything opens fully.
Trip.com still shows my Air Serbia trip on May 4 to TLV as On Schedule.
I’m flying myself May 18th with Air Serbia booked via Trip.com. By the looks of it don’t think your flight on May 4th will operate as scheduled. Good luck getting a refund from them
You can always dispute the charge and file a complaint with the DoT. You can also call them and let them know that’s what you plan on doing and soonest to them that they make things easier for themselves by refunding lechatchilo.
Trying to get back to NY after Pesach- thought I was going to take the United flight back on Sunday – can’t understand how such a stupid thing happened – did all the people working in Ben Gurion with half a brain stay home for the first days of Pesach ?
Sorry for being blunt, but it wasn’t the smartest thing to go to Israel for Pesach in the first place. Lots off ppl had been planning to go but they did the smart thing and stayed home. Good luck on finding a flight home.
Going to Israel was the smartest thing. There are far less cases in Israel than in America.
To be blunt I grabbed the first flight out of NY on motzei shabbos after Purim to make it on time for my fathers levaya- it wasn’t a pleasure trip
I’m sorry for your loss!
המקום ינחם אתכם בתוך שאר אבלי ציון ירושלים.
We should always think twice before throwing a blunt comment. you never know what the other person may be experiencing.
.המקום ינחם אתכם בתוך שאר אבלי ציון וירושלים
May it be the last tzarah!
Have a late June flight through United.
My Wyndham hotel is booked for May, and they doubled the rates! 🙁
What happens to meisim who need to be flown in to be buried in IL?
El al cargo still going
In my experience (twice already, unfortunately), no commercial carrier wants to transport COVID-19 victims to Israel anyway. The only way my family was able to get the bodies here was by private jet.
Oy Moishe. Terrible to hear. May your family only have simchos to share.
Off topic, but anybody here have any thoughts about summer camps opening this year in the US?
I wish I can answer.. truth is that no one can know what the future entails..
I have heard (from someone working in a camp) that as of now Sullivan county is not issuing permits to any camp or colony to operate. So everything is frozen for now.
Interesting. Thanks for that. My camp is in Pennsylvania, bordering Sullivan county.
Air Serbia for Sukkos
Dan do you have any clarity on who is allowed to enter Israel? If we are a couple living there for a few years now on a student visa and we get bills in our name to our apartment would that qualify us a residents? Just want to know if we can fly Even if we have to go to a quarantine hotel … thanks
Need bituach leumi
Chaim V’Chessed apparently said that was not enough. They said you need tobe Israeli residents Mammash to get in. But I don’t know.
Either way there is no rush to come back to Israel .I am here Pesach and there is no way Yeshivas and Kollelim are starting up again. It’s intense intense lockdown here.
Source ?
Israel is in the top ten safest places to be. The US is in the bottom ten. Do you want to be able to move around or do you want to avoid the risk of dying?
Chaim V’Chessed. Call them yourself.
About 10 days ago I bought a round-trip all-direct flight on Delta for the end of June till mid July for peanuts.
I really hope they’re flying by then AND that I don’t get locked down for 2 weeks.
Hopefully we’ll have testing ramped up here in NY and I’ll be able to prove I’m either clean or anti-bodied!
Hey Dan,
If I’m too book a flight for the end of the year, going thinks will be better then,
What’s the best way to book? Priceline? Directly with the airline? Other travel agencies?
Hi dan, i don’t see any aa flights from dfw-tlv (which was scheduled to begin service in September), but I don’t even see any flights for feb 2021. Dan, would you know if aa cancelled the launch of the dfw-tlv route?
https://www.dansdeals.com/points-travel/american-will-delay-return-tel-aviv-entire-year-due-coronavirus/
my flight on air serbia on April 20 was canceled booked through trip.com has anyone been able to get refund from them?
What did they say when you called them?
The Waldorf Jerusalem doubled the points required for a points stay…anyone know why Waldorf Jerusalem doubled the points required for a points stay?
Dan, with your 2020 end of year report in December it looks like you’ll have likely flown and traveled the least amount of miles since you were an infant, unless you have some surprise exotic trips planned for the end of the year…..
Oh don’t worry!! As soon as airlines open up he’ll just be flying for weeks straight…
My daughter is B’ezras Hashem due to give birth in Melbourne very soon. I live in Eretz Yisroel. Would I be allowed to fly there to be with her? Would I be banned from coming home, or just quarantined for two weeks? Or are there likely to be no flights to bring me back?
I have a flights scheduled for August, 1 with United and 3 with Virgin Atlantic. What are the odds that we’ll be able to fly, and without 2 week quarantine by then?
I have a grandson’s bar mitzvah in Israel at the end of August. I hope I can go (from NY).
To get my son home for Pesach, I booked a round trip to Newark on United. So I now have a united flight back to Israel that I can’t use and an El Al open return flight to the US I can’t use. I’m pretty sure united will let me reschedule or cancel the flight for credit. Anyone know what I can do about the return flight on the open El Al ticket?
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Saturday ordered a halt to all flights arriving in Israel, after the passengers on yet another “rescue” flight were not taken to a “coronavirus hotel.”
The order will remain in place until a legal agreement is reached to allow the Home Front Command to evacuate the arrivals to a coronavirus hotel.
Planes which have already taken off will be allowed to land, but no further arrivals will be permitted.
The order comes after N12 exposed the fact that the arrivals were not screened and that they may be responsible for the recent rise in coronavirus cases. Passengers from New York arriving at Ben Gurion International Airport on Saturday morning were allowed to leave the airport freely.
According to statistics from the National Information Center for Information on Coronavirus, one week ago, on April 4, the number of coronavirus cases which were sourced in Israelis who had traveled abroad stood at 16. Five days later, on April 9, the number of cases sourced in Israelis who had traveled abroad had jumped to 90. A significant portion of those cases seems to be travelers arriving from New York, who were allowed into the country without being properly tracked or placed in coronavirus hotels.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/278543
Booked air Canada in may for lag baomer
Was supposed to travel to parents in ny for pesach, after those plans fell through we were hoping to travel in August instead. How likely is it that we’ll actually be able to?
they don’t want any more coronavirus from high risk areas and peoples
At what capacity does the United and Ethiopian fly? Is it worth it for them?
Have a flight booked for aug 9 from dc on United. What are the chances it will happen and we won’t go into quarantine
Yes, I planned to make Aliyah next week. Will have to wait now.
Any info on getting yeshiva students to come back from Israel in May or June?
I have tickets with my children with Air Serbia on June 22-July 15. I guess for now, I can assume we’re not going anywhere. I booked with Chase UR and cash (CC). Hopefully will be easier getting refunded than those dealing with Trip.com. Or better to hope that we’ll be able to have our trip as planned!
Any ideas on what’s going to be in the summer June/July on el al? And summer camps in Israel? Already paid in full for that too
My daughter is still in seminary with around 28 other girls. She had an open return flight from el al. I have no idea what will be. September??
Just as an FYI. We had gotten the DansDeal on VirginAtlantic back in July for my kids to come back from Israel to NY through Priceline.
I received a refund from them on Wednesday. The Priceline rep said virgin and one other airline are the ONLY ones giving refunds. All others get Priceline credit
Thanks Dan
I have tickets on Virgin Atlantic for May 3. On April 9 I got an email that the flight was cancelled, but only saw it last night after Shabbos. Then I saw that they sent another email the next day that they changed the flight time by four hours. I don’t understand how they are planning to fly to Israel. Anyway, since the first email said the flight was cancelled, I requested a full refund by text message. (didn’t want to tie up their phone line since the flight was supposed to be in 3 weeks from now) I am waiting for a reply.
I have United tickets from DC in August. Even if some flights resume by then, I might still have to deal with quarantine, which wouldn’t be much of a vacation.
Am I missing something? With all that’s going on in EY, why, of all the few flights being allowed in, is the Airport being kept open on Shabbos for a United flight????!!!
United changed my flight to TLV with few hours and emailed asking if I accept or not, do I need to accept ? I don’t want to go in May anymore, do I wait until they cancel?
Call, ask for a refund. Don not accept the change.
I have return tickets on delta when will i be able to use them?
Might be worth thinking about flying to Amman and driving in to Israel. While it may not be so comfortable or safe, it might be your best chances at getting in. (You can get a safe driver and even private security for the right price if you are desperate)
Borders are closed from Jordan.
I have tickets to Israel on delta mid july for a weekend bar mitzvah.I’m thinking that flights will not be allowed unless we quarantine for 2 wks . We were planning on staying for 5 days . How do I handle that?
just for FYI .
the admin in Israel was announced yesterday for rescheduling all the flights with quarantined so united UA090 IS scheduled for today and on
I have a Delta flight from JFK to Paris, and then to TLV in late June – mid July. It was bought in February with Chase UR points. What is your suggestion on this? I wouldn’t mind cancelling the Paris leg, but how could I get the whole thing refunded if we are still under quarantine rules?
I have tickets with Elal mid may to Israel. Will they issue a refund? They did not yet cancel the flights but assuming Israel still has some restrictions in place I’m not sure I want to go. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated
does anyone know if i dispute a charge for a flight, will it cancel my tickets?
I keep reading about flights originating from NY. Currently, Are the any flights FROM Tlv to NY? If yes, which airline? If not, when do you expect them to start up again? My daughter needs to come to NY before the end of June, and return in September. She made Aliyah last year but hasn’t received her Israeli passport due to the virus. Will she be allowed to leave and re-enter on a US passport?
air serbia cancelled my departing flight and changed my return flight to a day later
how can I return if I don’t have a departing flight?
Call
Hey @dan being an israeli i can you give me advice how to get back to israel asap..are there flights running? i had booked an elal but seems there not resuming till may 3
We’re scheduled to go via El Al from Boston on June 9. Any idea if that flight will go and if we’ll be anle to enter Israel as Anericans at that time, beside the quarantine situation?
Nobody can possibly answer that question right now.
We are booked on a tour of Israel with flight from Newark on August 27th and returning on Labor Day. Should we hold on to that booking or reschedule maybe for 2021?
Will flights from U.S resume in September? Will I be able to get into Israel being that I am a U.S. citizen?