A few days ago we learned the details of American Airlines’ new flight between New York and Tel Aviv, and this flight his now bookable.
American Airlines’ New York to Tel Aviv flight
American Airlines will be launching year-round, daily nonstop flights between New York and Tel Aviv as of May 6, 2021, and this flight is now on sale. The service will operate with the following schedule:
New York JFK to Tel Aviv departing 11:10PM arriving 5:15PM (+1 day)
Tel Aviv to New York JFK departing 12:50AM arriving 6:00AM
The ~5,700 mile flight is blocked at 11hr5min eastbound and 12hr10min westbound.
American’s New York to Tel Aviv route
American Airlines intends to use a Boeing 777-200ER for the route, featuring 273 seats, including 37 business class seats and 24 premium economy seats.
American Airlines’ 777 premium economy
Is there any award & upgrade space on this route?
With new long haul routes I always like to check if there’s any valuable upgrade or award space that people might like to take advantage of. In the case of the JFK to TLV flight, it’s a mixed bag:
- I don’t see any saver level business class awards, as they currently start at 125,000 AAdvantage miles one-way
- I do, however, see lots of confirmable business class upgrade space, whether you want to upgrade with miles or systemwide upgrades
One version of American’s 777 business class seat
How this fits into American’s strategy
New York to Tel Aviv is the first long haul route being launched as part of American’s new strategic partnership with JetBlue. The airlines have a new partnership focused on the Northeast, and with this we’ll see American launch several long haul flights, with JetBlue providing most of the connectivity.
American is also expected to add a seasonal New York to Athens flight this summer, as well as a New York to Rio de Janeiro route in December 2021. On top of that, we’ve been told to expect up to a couple of dozen global destinations out of New York within the next few years, so it sounds like there will be some significant growth.
In addition to this, American Airlines will launch a Dallas to Tel Aviv route as of October 31, 2021. We initially learned about this route in September 2019, but it ended up being delayed significantly due to coronavirus. Even though that route was announced much earlier, it’ll launch over five months later. In fairness, New York to Tel Aviv is probably a safer bet, especially during these uncertain times.
American will fly to Tel Aviv from Dallas & New York
New York to Tel Aviv is a competitive market
While American Airlines will be the only airline to fly from Dallas to Tel Aviv, New York to Tel Aviv is a very crowded market already. Looking at the schedule for this upcoming summer:
- Delta will operate 2x daily JFK to TLV flights
- United will operate 2x daily EWR to TLV flights
- EL AL will operate 3x daily JFK to TLV flights and 2x daily EWR to TLV flights
In other words, there are already up to 9x daily frequencies in the market, and with American it will be up to 10x daily. Wow.
In fairness, New York is the biggest US O&D market for Israel, and on top of that American will have the strength of JetBlue’s network for connectivity.
EL AL operates up to 5x daily flights to the New York area
Bottom line
American Airlines will be launching a daily flight between New York and Tel Aviv as of May 2021, and flights are now on sale. It’s exciting to see American finally return to Israel after an absence of so many years, as it’s a market where American has really been lacking.
I’ll be curious to see how these routes perform for American, given the competition.
What do you make of American’s New York to Tel Aviv route?
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