Travel disruptions in and out of Israel continued throughout the week as numerous foreign airlines postponed flights, some through mid-May, following a Houthi missile attack on Israel’s Ben-Gurion International Airport.
Chicago-based United Airlines has canceled its twice-daily service between Newark and Tel Aviv through May 18, while Delta Air Lines, headquartered in Atlanta, has paused its daily New York–Tel Aviv route until May 19. As a result, El Al, Israel’s national airline, remains the only carrier operating regular transatlantic flights between the United States and Israel.
Arkia Airlines, another Israeli carrier offering four weekly flights to New York, is temporarily stopping in Athens due to “operational constraints,” a spokesperson confirmed. These diversions are expected to continue until May 14.
Following the May 4 missile strike, which hit a grove of trees near an access road adjacent to Ben-Gurion Airport’s Terminal 3—hundreds of yards from the airport’s control tower—several major European airlines also renewed their suspensions.
The Lufthansa Group, including SWISS, Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines, suspended all flights to Israel until May 11, while Air France extended its cancellations through May 13. Spanish carriers Air Europa and Iberia are scheduled to resume service this weekend. Meanwhile, Aegean Airlines and budget airline Wizz Air plan to restart flights next week.
British Airways, however, has postponed its return to Tel Aviv until mid-June.
Many of these foreign carriers had only just resumed operations to Israel this spring, aiming to meet demand during the Passover and Easter travel seasons, after suspending flights amid the ongoing conflict.
The resulting flight shortage has caused airfares to spike sharply—just as prices had begun to drop following the holidays and the temporary return of foreign airlines.
“The situation is exceedingly complicated, and clients are frustrated because they cannot get a straight answer,” said Mark Feldman, Jerusalem-based director of Diesenhaus Travels, in a statement to JNS on Thursday. “The sky may be falling, but the collateral damage to the flying public is terrible, with no hard answers in sight.”
Despite the turmoil, several non-Western carriers have continued operating uninterrupted. FlyDubai and Etihad Airways of the United Arab Emirates, Ethiopian Airlines and Blue Bird Airways have maintained their service to Tel Aviv throughout the war.
In fact, Etihad Airways announced this week a 40% increase in its Tel Aviv flights for the upcoming winter season, with plans to operate 28 weekly flights to Abu Dhabi starting in mid-December.
More than 50,000 departing and arriving passengers passed through Israel’s main international airport on Thursday on over 300 international flights, the Israel Airport Authority said.
