Unlike Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, American Airlines hasn’t operated a flight to Israel in over two years. That will be changing… though we’ll have to wait for around five months.
Continue reading: American Airlines Returning To Tel Aviv, Israel, As Of March 2026
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Is it subsidised by Israeli government?
Mind blowing how 5 airlines serves it?..
do they make money in it?
Not surprising to see this addition. It’s interesting though because who is American’s target customer?
Many will book El Al because of its excellent security and its demonstrated history of continued service.
Other loyal customers will choose their respective airline, United or Delta, as they provide a better product.
And then their is American.. I guess they will be forced to keep fares low or rely on connecting traffic to fill planes. Connections to Miami, LA and Chicago should provide especially helpful.
It may be a good sign for relative peace in the region; though, as we've seen, it's fragile.
On the 'Big Three,' it is interesting how some focus on certain regions, while others do not. For instance, while Delta and United fly to Africa, American does not. Likewise, while American and United fly to India, Delta does not (@Tim Dunn, I know, they're planning to return, but not yet). Then there's odd-ball stuff, like United flying to Nuuk and Ulaanbaatar...good luck to them with that.
Of all the cities that AA could start a TLV service, I was expecting PHL or MIA, because there are relatively large Jewish American populations in those cities, and each is an AA hub. Adding more to NYC seems excessive with EL AL already at both JFK, EWR; United at EWR; and Delta at JFK. Eh.
The Miami to Tel Aviv market is really big, though it seems to be mostly popular with Israelis. After speaking to a few affluent Israelis, it seems that many of them prefer to fly with El Al because despite the subpar product, they continue to operate flights when the security situation deteriorates. Meanwhile, some of them prefer to fly with Delta for the better product in the market, while United also offers a solid product but with many frequencies to multiple destinations from TLV.
AA needs to establish itself in the JFK-TLV market, and go after the frequent travelers on the route. Then, they can launch service from MIA, and they can have the upper hand with nonstop flights in both markets. They just need to offer a significantly better product than El Al to compete, otherwise any rational person would book with El Al if the price is the same. Otherwise, I know a ton of Israelis who fly into NYC and out of Miami on the same trip.
The route is also very helpful to BA/Iberia because I could very easily see customers booking multi-city itineraries - direct one-way and then through UK/Spain the other way. Not uncommon.
In the past, the Israeli Ministry of Tourism offered a €750,000/$841,000 grant to American Airlines for a DFW-TLV service (2019), but that was delayed a lot and then cancelled due to the pandemic.
I suspect some who booked a connection with IB or BA will now book the nonstop via AA.
Many will avoid El Al because of its excellent security.
They must have done many things to really need those air defense pods and extra security everywhere.
It’s not subsidized. There’s tremendous demand to TLV. El Al is making money hand over fist, and US airlines have said that it’s among their most profitable routes.
One thing american does not codeshare with el al. This is a reason why they need to operate their own aircraft. But el al will scale back jfk to 3 rather than 4-5 weekday departures
As with AA's previous marketing, I suspect this new route is to tap cities like El Paso, Lubbock, Amarillo, Santa Fe and other larger Southwestern metropolitan areas that have hoards of residents jetting off to TLV often via JFK. Makes complete sense to me.
One thing missed in this piece is that prior to its acquisition by American Airlines, TWA had a thriving JFKTLV daily roundtrip service. When American acquired the remains of TWA (that weren't destroyed by Carl Icahn), that route was terminated by American.
One of the perceptions (never officially confirmed) with regards to American Airlines not serving Israel was that as a Texas-based airline, there was concern about backlash from some of AA's oil company customers over any connection with Israel, although this was never publicly confirmed back in the day.
What some of us on the left coast really miss is the resumption of the nonstop SFOTLV service provided by United. Those flights were very popular in the SF Bay area due to significant relations between Silicon Valley and Israeli high tech companies as well as a large number of Israeli expatriates in the SF Bay area (the alternatives of having to fly to either EWR or LAX to catch a flight to TLV are not very appealing.
Great history you provide, especially about the fact that AA is Texas-based and its oil company customers.
Harkening back to the good ole TWA era!
Tel Aviv was the 9th highest intl demand route from JFK in June 2024 LTM despite the conflict with 542k roundtrip passengers (i.e., 750 PDEW). Note that around 25% of those passengers have to connect.
With the ceasefire and hopeful onset of peace, that number will further climb as it was in the top 5 pre-conflict.
So it’s a huge demand route in par with an FCO or MXP and not too far behind CDG. When AA flew it pre-conflict in 2023, its LFs in Q1 2023 were ~85% as per Crankyflier with a healthy chunk of that O&D traffic.
Source: https://simpleflying.com/new-york-jfk-top-15-international-routes/
Historically, depending on how you define that word, TWA (now AA) had the most US carrier service to TLV. Until their demise, they flew via CDG as TW800 on a 747 - then it went to nonstop. Pan Am also flew via CDG but the CDG - TLV was an A310. That's historical (to me). United is now the the largest US carrier with service to TLV and has been since October 7th and now upguaging service. United mostly bought out route authorities tobecome today's Pan Am, Delta got a bit too. AA had bad timing and bought TW and shut it's int'l routes down a few months later due to 9/ll.
@Eskimo, can you explain your comment about people avoiding El Al because of their “excellent security?” I’m not sure I understand and don’t want to misinterpret.
El Al is usually at a premium price point but is the only Israeli carrier operating to FL. In Europe, we have a good deal more choice.
Not just El Al! Arkia operates 6X per week (on a leased aircraft) and Israir is also starting flights on the route next March.
lovely... and UA makes $1 billion less than DL flying 10% more ASMs worldwide.
Sounds like flying the most flights to the most places really isn't a winning strategy, does it? Unless your goal is to spew the most pollutants into the atmosphere
EL AL is filling over 95% of it flights to Tel Aviv out of JFK EWR and LAX. EL AL has been charging an enormous premium as the only nonstop to Israel from these cities and passengers are still paying it. It's a very lucrative route.
Epstein? As in the pedophile Epstein? Epstein never married a girl at six years old and took her virginity at nine, unlike a certain prophet who shall not be mentioned. And just because Cuomo said something nasty is no reason to conflate him with anyone.
For y'all haters attention, Jewish folks are not the only ones flying to Israel. That transjordanian Levant region is super reach in history of all major religions and cultures. From Crusaders's castles in Syria and Lebanon to Jesus related sights in Israel, as well as Phoenician and Ptolomeic Levant history, it's all there. And if you have even a bit of education and intelligence, stay away from those Southern country bumpkins
