At the moment, no US airlines are flying nonstop between the United States and Israel. American hasn’t resumed service since the initial October 7 attacks, while Delta and United have done their best to operate service safely, though there have been multiple suspensions.
Service from these airlines to Israel has at this point been suspended indefinitely, given the rapidly evolving situation. A politician is now taking issue with that, and I can’t help but think he has a really bad take…
In this post:
Ritchie Torres accuses US airlines of “effectively boycotting” Israel
Democratic US Congressman Ritchie Torres from New York has written a letter to the CEOs of American, Delta, and United. He accuses the airlines of “effectively boycotting” Israel, and demands that they resume service to Israel at once. Here’s the main part of the letter:
I am writing to express concern about the suspension of air travel between the United States and Israel. The suspension has been so prolonged and so pervasive that El Al, an Israeli airline, has become the sole carrier offering direct flights from America to Israel. The lack of competition has made air travel to Israel less available and less affordable, putting customers at the mercy of a de facto monopoly that can easily gouge prices with impunity.
Unlike in 2014, when the FAA forbade air travel to Israel (generating considerable controversy at the time), the American airline industry has arbitrarily and unilaterally imposed its own ban on travel to Israel, independently of an order from the FAA. Airlines should be prohibited from effectively boycotting or otherwise discriminating against the world’s only Jewish State. It is one thing to temporarily suspend air travel to Israel on security grounds as defined by the FAA. But to unilaterally suspend air travel indefinitely until mid-2025, as American Airlines has done, has the practical effect of a boycott. Given the arbitrary length of the suspension, one could be forgiven for thinking that the BDS movement had taken over the American aviation industry without anyone noticing, much less crying foul. By what logic and in what universe is it safe for El Al to travel to Israel but too dangerous for American Airlines, Delta, and United to do so? It is worth noting that UAE airlines like Etihad, FlyDubai, and Wizz Air Abu Dhabi continue to fly to Israel without incident.
We are calling on every American airline to restore air travel to Israel and to operate based on FAA guidance in order to prevent the appearance and the substance of discrimination against the Jewish State.
What a bizarre thing to accuse US airlines of
The Israel and Palestine conflict is of course incredibly divisive, so I want to unpack these claims in an objective way.
To start, let’s be honest — there’s absolutely nothing that airline CEOs want more than to maximize profitability. That’s especially true when you consider that United is quickly catching up to Delta when it comes to financial results, and United has also historically been (by far) the strongest US airline in Israel. Israel is also an incredibly lucrative market for airlines, especially with the current capacity landscape, and it’s why EL AL has reported record profitability in the past year.
US airlines aren’t currently flying to Israel both due to direct security concerns, and also because they aren’t able to do so reliably. Just a few weeks ago, Iran threatened direct retaliation against Israel, after Israel killed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh via a missile strike.
It doesn’t make sense for airlines to constantly launch service, only to then suspend it when the next security concern arises. Airlines need to be able to do consistent fleet planning, and they can’t just have planes sitting around, in hopes of maybe being able to fly to Israel.
The current challenge is just that Israel service can’t be operated reliably enough for it to make sense for US airlines, and that’s that. I can guarantee that US airline executives (including those working in fleet planning) aren’t somehow conspiring to “punish” Israel.
Two parts of the letter stand out to me. First of all, there’s this:
The American airline industry has arbitrarily and unilaterally imposed its own ban on travel to Israel, independently of an order from the FAA. Airlines should be prohibited from effectively boycotting or otherwise discriminating against the world’s only Jewish State.
I can’t tell if Torres is simply trying to score some cheap points, or honestly believes this?
- Airlines can “unilaterally” end service wherever they’d like; aside from Essential Air Service markets or airports with slot controls that have “use it or lose it” provisions, of course they can fly whatever they want to, and they should be able to
- To equate temporarily suspending service to Israel after Iran vowed direct retaliation against Israel to “effectively boycotting or otherwise discriminating against the world’s only Jewish State” is ridiculous
Then there’s this tidbit:
By what logic and in what universe is it safe for El Al to travel to Israel but too dangerous for American Airlines, Delta, and United to do so?
I guess Torres really didn’t do his research here:
- EL AL aircraft are equipped with special safety features, including anti-missile systems, which the aircraft of US airlines aren’t equipped with
- EL AL is exclusively based in Israel, so flying to and from the country is literally EL AL’s only option; the alternative would just be to shut down
- EL AL operates with a deep commitment to Israel, and the Jewish faith; I mean, the airline doesn’t even fly on the Sabbath
- US airlines generally err more on the side of caution than some other carriers when it comes to the conditions under which they’ll fly to a destination, to minimize risk; for that matter, the unions at US airlines generally object to flying to destinations if there are legitimate safety concerns
Bottom line
A US Congressman from New York is accusing US airlines of boycotting Israel by suspending service to the country. While there are all kinds of legitimate cases that could be made about discrimination, this isn’t among them.
US airlines have suspended flights to Israel over safety concerns, and because of how unreliably they’ve been able to operate this service, in light of the rapidly evolving situation. The reason EL AL has been able to continue flying is because the airline operates on a different level when it comes to safety, and also because EL AL has no other option — the airline would otherwise have to shut down.
What do you make of Torres’ letter to airline CEOs?
No one cares about what AIPAC's biggest sycophant says.
Free Palestine.
While this may be political grandstanding, I would rank this blog post as 'incomplete'. The post explains in one sentence the reason that US carriers aren't currently operating to Israel: "US airlines aren’t currently flying to Israel both due to direct security concerns, and also because they aren’t able to do so reliably." Honestly, that isn't two reasons--a "both"--but rather one reason: the carriers feel that they can't do so reliably because of security concerns).
...While this may be political grandstanding, I would rank this blog post as 'incomplete'. The post explains in one sentence the reason that US carriers aren't currently operating to Israel: "US airlines aren’t currently flying to Israel both due to direct security concerns, and also because they aren’t able to do so reliably." Honestly, that isn't two reasons--a "both"--but rather one reason: the carriers feel that they can't do so reliably because of security concerns).
In any event, the point about FZ et. al. is somewhat sideways in that this blog post failed to acknowledge that those crews don't overnight in TLV-- it is an out and back for them. UA/DL/AA crews would have to overnight in TLV. Do their unions want to do that? There are labor issues involved. That's why BA did the stop in LCA.
I don't like when the "security concerns" card is pulled when it might really be a labor issue. It seems less about planes in the air, taking off or landing, and more about crews hanging out in TLV. Or it does to me, anyway.
It might not be labour issues either.
It might be issues with insurance companies, or leasing companies.
Insurance might ask for a high premium due to the higher than normal security risk.
Leasing companies might forbid them from using their aircrafts to Isreal.
Then there's fleet shortage, much more acute at American compared to Delta and United, they can easily send those widebodies to Europe, Asia, Oceania, Africa and South America and make really...
It might not be labour issues either.
It might be issues with insurance companies, or leasing companies.
Insurance might ask for a high premium due to the higher than normal security risk.
Leasing companies might forbid them from using their aircrafts to Isreal.
Then there's fleet shortage, much more acute at American compared to Delta and United, they can easily send those widebodies to Europe, Asia, Oceania, Africa and South America and make really good money, why take the gamble to fly to Israel.
Sudden cancellations too, a single cancelled flight, rebooking of passengers, compensations, hotel accommodation for passengers and crew, and many extra expenses not to talk of the effects of now having about 1-5 widebody planes (depending on schedule) seating ideal at airports after they cancelled the flights
I found Torres' comment that "the lack of competition has made air travel to Israel less available and less affordable, putting customers at the mercy of a de facto monopoly that can easily gouge prices with impunity" to be informative. If there's price gouging going on, it's because El Al is run by greedy, selfish, money-grubbing Jews. That's why the whole world has hated them for centuries.
The government of Israel is covering the increased insurance costs for El Al, but not for other airlines: https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/international/2023/10/13/744105.htm
How about Torres proposing to cover the same for the American airlines?
Funny how it's safe for European airlines to fly along with Fly Dubai and Etihad but the US airlines stay away.
Ben your anti israel bias is showing again
I think it's more a case of Wizz, Ethiopian and FlyDubai having a different assessment of risk compared to UA, AA, etc.
Europe and Middle East is relatively close to Isreal compared to America.
BA, KLM, Fly Dubai don't use widebodies to Isreal.
And they can operate this flight with a single set of flight crew, 1 captain, 1 first officer, adding an extra first officer means that the aircraft and crew don't have to make a long stop in Isreal, 1-2hrs, they're off the ground.
Then with closer geographic location, they can easily make last...
Europe and Middle East is relatively close to Isreal compared to America.
BA, KLM, Fly Dubai don't use widebodies to Isreal.
And they can operate this flight with a single set of flight crew, 1 captain, 1 first officer, adding an extra first officer means that the aircraft and crew don't have to make a long stop in Isreal, 1-2hrs, they're off the ground.
Then with closer geographic location, they can easily make last minute changes quicker, can easily tell a crew to return to base if continuing to Isreal isn't feasible again.
It's also easier and faster to redeploy narrow body planes compared to widebody planes
Yeah, and if one United, AA, or Delta aircraft was hit by a Hamas, Hezbollah, or Houthi rocket, the "Honorable gentleman" from New York would be railing against them for deliberately endangering American lives and encouraging their loved-ones to sue the carrier into bankruptcy.
Don't worry, Israel could shoot one down, blame it on the Palestinians, and the rest of the world would agree without any sort of investigation.
BA services LHR-TLV-LHR with a LCA stopover, overnighting crews.
Definitely shunned by Pax ... airline downgraded service to a single aisle aircraft.
LY , cashing in , with 2 wide bodies per day completely sold out in all classes.
Why the hell would anyone in their right mind want to do LHR-TLV on an A320 with a stop at LCA in each direction? Ghastly. Book me on LY, please.
Let’s ask the passengers of Malaysia airlines flight 17 if it’s wise for an airline to fly over a war zone much less land in one. Oh wait, you can’t.
One correction- there is no such place as Palestine.
This conflict is between Israel and the terrorist organizations of Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis - all backed by Iran.
Correction, Palestine is the land occupied by the settler colonial project named Israel.
Nah, even in Roman times it was restricted to what is the Gaza Strip today. The Romans called it Philistia, and its citizens were the Philistines. Still works today.
Except the occupation of the Palestinians started long before Hamas, Hezbollah, etc, were created.
This blog has become a Jew hating stink hole.
Yup and breathtaking ignorance of genuine conflicts and tragedies in the Middle East (i.e. not started by a terrorist group murdering 1,000+ civilians).
This is stupid political posturing which should be ignored. It's on par with "mIgRaNtS aRe DoInG aLl ThE cRiMeS".
So how is it that UAE airlines like Etihad, FlyDubai, and Wizz Air Abu Dhabi continue to fly to Israel without incident???? Why can't US airlines do the same??? Is there some sort of advantage that these other airlines have???? Actually curious to know.
Why were American Airlines and United Airlines targeted on 9/11 instead of UAE airlines like Eithad, FlyDubai, and Wizz Air?
Good point..
LOL! Maybe, Maybe, they were no Fly Dubai or Wizz Air Flying from Boston? Maybe Building 7 at WTC was never hit by a Plane and still Blew up? Mr Silverman Doubled His Insurance of WTC Days before 9/11? What about the 7 Israelis in the "White Van" that was caught By FBI on 9/11 with Explosives?
Dude, you and your fellow nutters have had 23 years to show us incontrovertible evidence that 9/11 was an "inside job", yet after all that time the best you can do is whack-job conspiracy theories and BS about 'thermite' and "steel doesn't burn". We don't buy it. It's bullshit.
Perhaps those airlines can fly a round-trip with a single crew? With US airlines, the crew working the flight to TLV will need to spend a night or two in town which is a big security liability given the current instability in the area. Deadheading crews in and out simply isn't feasible or reasonable.
Agreed, Miguel. The United service from SFO, for instance, is a 7422 miles. There's no way you can expect a crew to deadhead out and the other crew to deadhead straight back. On the 787-9 it would require something like 12 Polaris seats to be blocked out in each direction, a full 25% of the cabin.
I have many things to say about Congressman Torres. Not one of them good. His district deserves better
Please Bow Down and Kiss AIPAC!
Another reason yet to not vote for Democrats.
Sinwar for Congress, right, Mason?
Sinwar is an Israeli Asset! Look it up how many Millions The Nut n yahoo has paid to Hamas to keep the Rockets (Fire Crackers) going into empty Fields in Israeli Territory. The end result? There will never be talk of a "Palestinian State" as long as there is a conflict in Gaza.
I like Congressman Torres and had the pleasure to meet him; here, he is just wrong. As soon as this war ends, US carriers will be immediately back flying to Israel, Jordan, etc. with frequency.
I stopped reading after you mentioned Richie Torres, a known AIPAC sellout and die-hard lobbyist for the zionist regime.
Torres represents the poorest congressional district in the entire country. One would think that his constituents want him to work more on improving their day to day lives, tackling food insecurity, housing affordability and unemployment rather than interfering with the business decisions of private companies. Then again, Ritchie's real constituency consists solely of AIPAC and not the residents of the Bronx.
Using the same logic, Delta is anti-German for cutting Stuttgart and Duesseldorf leaving both places with no transatlantic service.
JetBlue cut 15 US cities. So anti-American
>Israel is mentioned within 1000 yds of a comment section
A box of grenades has entered the chat... why are all the pins missing?
If I was a Jew, I would really think ,why is it that Jews have been Kicked Out of every country in the world for Thousands of years?
There has to be a reason,why?
The true antisemite here is Ritchie Torres himself, an AIPAC-funded politician who has no problem perpetuating antisemitic tropes when it comes to anti-Zionist Jews.
Look up what he said about Jason Rosenberg for just one example.
He said Jason Rosenberg celebrated Oct 7. True or false, that's not anti-semitic.
But the hordes of anti-Zionist drones will surely upvote your comment anyway.
Proudly anti-Zionist, keep crying about it, land thief.
Every so-called "pro-Israel" American I know supports a two-state solution, and yet anti-Zionists proudly claim that they wish to abolish the state of Israel, scattering millions of Jews to whatever fate befalls them.
The cognitive dissonance of anti-Zionists is truly mind-boggling. They simultaneously hold two ideas: what Israel is doing to Palestine is the Worst Crime Ever™ and yet they would like to visit the same fate upon Israel.
"Every so-called "pro-Israel" American I know supports a two-state solution"
So you must only know like 3 or 4 pro-Israeli Americans...
You also must now know that many anti-Zionists beyond what Hasbara propaganda tells you to believe.
Keep reading Hamas News, Julia. I notice you don't deny the anti-Zionist position.
The literal definition of anti-Zionism is the belief that Israel shouldn't exist.
This is pure politics and has absolutely nothing to do with aviation safety or risk / insurance and does not belong in an airline blog. This is an excellent move by Congressman Torres to get additional funding he needs from his AIPAC guy for his re-election campaign. The upcoming elections are critical for preserving "Democracy" and DEI alone cannot get Congressman Torres re-elected.
Yes, Torres really needs additional funding to win in November, being the incumbent in what is literally the most Democratic-leaning congressional district in the country. The guy won his first election with 89% of the vote.
Torres' next-door district colleague, Congressman Jamaal Bowman, just lost his primary. Why? Because the Zionist lobby poured several million dollars into the race in support of his opponent. That is the one and only reason why Torres is doing this. He doesn't want to be the next AIPAC victim.
@snic: Bowman accomplished very little in his tenure in Congress, other than pulling the fire alarm. Similar with Bush. You'll notice other Squad members who actually have a record to run on are doing just fine. Sure AIPAC can swing a few points here and there, but they can only do that if it's already contested. They're not unseating anyone who's already ahead by double digits.
Final election does not matter in most of the country. Very very few districts are real swing districts. The money is needed to prevent being replaced “undemocratically for the sake of democracy” by a primary challenger. You know media could find out now about his dementia.
Nothing to see here, just cheap posturing by a rando House Rep for political points. The world learned the hard way 10 years ago that flying passenger jets over active war zones is still very dangerous, even with modern transponder and identification systems.
You mean 35 years ago when a US warship shot down a civilian A300 and killed a few hundred people on it. The captain and whole ship even got a Navy medal for it.
Probably only Pepperidge Farm remembers and the rest of the country just forgets.
As you can see by thinking it was 10 years ago.
Torres is a huge idiot who has taken piles of AIPAC money and turned being a pro-Israel troll into literally his fulltime job for some unknown reason. This is just one random expression of that, and I'm sure he didn't put as much thought into it as you did in the write-up.
You just GAVE the reason why, in the same sentence.
If you need a visual, then here:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJtInazaUAArFyJ.jpg
Good article Ben but your point on the anti missile tech is a little off base. Just the 737s have it, and even then, it's meant to defend against shoulder launched heat seaking surface to air missiles. It wouldn't really help against anything Hamas, Hezbollah, or Iran would send Israels way.
His AIPAC guy asked him to write it.
Torres has been paid off by some lobby. He has never run a business.
As an Israeli I don't think its because of antisemitism but in the same breaths there aren't security concerns currently in TEL Aviv and the surrounding area. The dangerous places are in the far north and south and everything in the middle has been very quiet for months now. So its kind of frustrating watching people outside of the area generalizing saying visiting Israel is extremely dangerous right now when most of Israel is as...
As an Israeli I don't think its because of antisemitism but in the same breaths there aren't security concerns currently in TEL Aviv and the surrounding area. The dangerous places are in the far north and south and everything in the middle has been very quiet for months now. So its kind of frustrating watching people outside of the area generalizing saying visiting Israel is extremely dangerous right now when most of Israel is as safe as before the war just not the areas near Gaza and Ramat hagolan and stuff.
Ask people who people who visited here the last couple of months and they will tell you the same.
You didn't address the threat of missile exchanges between Iran and Israel, which causes temporary disruptions. Ben specifically pointed this out as a likely reason why US airlines are likely unwilling to fly to Israel for now.
Torres should fly his own planes to Israel. Perhaps he will have a better understanding of the situation.
Ultimately it’s a safety issue and if he does some research will discover he could say the same for the majority of European carriers. I doubt most of the crew would be happy to fly there given the current situation.
As a lawyer with a lot of experience in aviation law, can also say that the Representative's position ignores what the carrier's War Risk nsurance lead underwriters allow/dictate/surcharge/etc.
At which firm do you practice?
Left biglaw in 2006, at a boutique now.
Bingo !! This is mostly about insurance costs and fleet planning as lucky pointed out. Also crew concerns about safety.
Torres letter is extremely weird
Possible temporary solution: Given crews are likely apprehensive about overnighting in TLV right now, could an airline like United profitably fly out and back with 18 or so of their business seats blocked & dedicated to crew who would work the return flight? There are 60 seats in total in Polaris on the 777-300s. I know this is not ideal, but in the interim is this feasible considering the demand? Another option would be a...
Possible temporary solution: Given crews are likely apprehensive about overnighting in TLV right now, could an airline like United profitably fly out and back with 18 or so of their business seats blocked & dedicated to crew who would work the return flight? There are 60 seats in total in Polaris on the 777-300s. I know this is not ideal, but in the interim is this feasible considering the demand? Another option would be a stopover in Athens but this is less convenient for passengers. The airport has been operating normally for the most part, but US based crews would be very concerned about staying there in the event there is further retaliation from Iran etc.
Nobody would fly on united with a stopover in Athens if they have a direct route with El al. Its incredibly uncompetitive.
If Woody Allen had issued the statement he would have complained that the seats are too small and the flights aren't long enough.
Wow