Delta Air Lines and United Airlines have both once again suspended service to what’s no doubt the most complicated destination that any US airline serves…
In this post:
Iran’s threats prompt Israel service cuts
Early on Wednesday, July 31, 2024, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Iran via missile strike. Iran has vowed direct retaliation against Israel, putting the country on even higher alert.
As you’d expect, this development is causing all kinds of international airlines, including Delta and United, to suspend service to Israel. Here’s how United describes the cancelation on its flight status page:
Your flight is canceled due to unrest in the Middle East. Your safety is our first priority. We know this impacts your plans and we are sorry for the inconvenience.
As you’d expect, Israeli national carrier EL AL is continuing to operate flights to and from Israel as normal, as the airline has been doing since October 2023. After all, that’s the company’s entire business model, it views this service as “essential,” and it also has all kinds of additional safety features, like anti-missile systems.
When will Delta and United resume Tel Aviv flights?
Neither Delta nor United have announced when they’ll resume service to Israel, though they’re taking very different approaches.
United has formally canceled flights to Tel Aviv through August 8, 2024, but has zeroed out inventory all the way through August 31, 2024. Meanwhile Delta has only canceled service through today (August 1, 2024), and the flight to Tel Aviv for tomorrow shows as being on sale (though I’d say the chances of it operating are virtually zero).
It’s interesting to see how different airlines have been approaching Israel service, in light of the conflict. For example, both Delta and United resumed service to Israel as soon as they could, while American still hasn’t resumed its service (admittedly American was also the weakest of the “big three” US carriers to Israel before the October 7 attacks).
Ultimately Israel is a lucrative market for US airlines, which is why they were so keen to restore service. However, one has to wonder how all this uncertainty is playing into the economics of these routes. Airlines have to make fleet planning decisions in advance, so United is now left with some spare wide body jets for the coming months.
Then again, with the overcapacity narrative at US airlines, perhaps there’s not all that much opportunity cost to those planes being parked, especially with the peak summer travel season coming to an end shortly.
Bottom line
Delta and United have both once again suspended service to Israel, following the assassination of the leader of Hamas. Iran has vowed to take revenge against Israel, with an imminent attack. For now, Delta has only cut Israel service for a day, while United seems to be planning on cutting Israel service through the end of the month.
How do you see this service suspension playing out for Delta and United?
Ben, continue the sentence...who launched the missile strike? Who pressed the button? Elon Musk? Aliens? Someone from Tahiti? It's staggering how selectively you promote half-truths, misinformation, and wilful ignorance when it comes to Israel but never shy away from digging into the likes of Gulf states. Hypocrisy at its finest.
So reading between the lines, American is once again setting an example for other airlines to follow.
West's response to the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Palestine war clearly shows west's hypocrisy. One is a war but the other is only a conflict. The western media and politicians too chicken to call it what it is. In both wars, a bigger, more powerful country is trying to wipe the other off the map. The ONLY difference is one was unprovoked and the other was. And TBH, even then, even though Israel was provoked, the Israel...
West's response to the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Palestine war clearly shows west's hypocrisy. One is a war but the other is only a conflict. The western media and politicians too chicken to call it what it is. In both wars, a bigger, more powerful country is trying to wipe the other off the map. The ONLY difference is one was unprovoked and the other was. And TBH, even then, even though Israel was provoked, the Israel has equal blame on what happened. Had it not kept the occupied territories it won after 6 day war, had it not displaced Palestinians from those occupied territories, had it not forcefully settled thousand of Israelis, situation may have been different.
Israel must be boycotted for murdering innocent children.
Next time ascertain facts before you post untrue rubbish. Israel withdrew from Gaza decades ago, in exchange for a promise of peace. Gaza became a place where no living Jew was permitted. October 7, 2023 showed us what that promise was worth. Conflating this with the other territories is misleading.
Well.. the airlines do have a choice… There’s always Yasser Arafat International Airport.. ? Or the upcoming Ismail Haniyeh Domestic Airport?
It’s the responsibility of El Al to fly this route.
I’m not ok with murdered Jews. Neither would my Jewish mother . Neither would my Jewish grandparents. Shame on you Palestinian sympathizers.
The airlines could care less about "safety"
They will run the flights if they can make money.
They will not run the flights when the insurers stop coverage
Sure Jan, because they don’t care about their crew. Moron
also tel aviv where the only international airport in israel is operating currently is generally safe since a month after Oct 7th. all the war happens in the south and north and tel aviv is right in the middle so its barely affected. So I dont think it will be long until they resume flying again.
wild how just mentioning israel attracts some of the craziest commenters and responses ever. seems like bots.
Antisemitism is a sickness.
Ah, the old "call any criticism of Israel and/or sympathy for the Palestinians" as being antisemitism in the hopes of silencing those opinions.
Next thing you calling out Israel for saying it's ok to rape Palestinian prisoners is going to be labeled antisemitic.
As everyone has noticed, Julia is a pro-Hamas moron.
@Ailuj
Nah, only Zionists like you "notice" stuff like that. Also, equating people who are sympathetic to the Palestinians as being pro-Hamas is another example of Hasbara propaganda to try and silence people.
you dont care about Palestinians when its not about israel you only care about them when israel is involved just like any crazy islamist defender. self victimizing and blaming everything on jews, classic method that worked for thousands of years by various fascist and communist goverments. and when called out deny and project everything and repeat.
@adam
Blaming what on Jews? Also what does Palestine have to do with Islam? There are Christian Palestinians as well, some of the oldest Christian lineages are from Palestine. Also, what does communism have to do with this when the discussion is literally about the Palestinians/Israel? Stop deflecting and trying to change the conversation.
wdym? how is saying zionist pigs who control the media is antisemitic??? i have a jewish friend called ahmed that says the same thing how could I be antisemitic?
@adam
Who said Zionists control the media? besides you?
Criticising Israel is not antisemitism and demeans the word. Lots of Jews do not support Israel and its actions and actually what you are doing by conflating Israel with Jews is actually what is antisemitic!
100% agree. Unfortunately (at least in the US), one dare not say anything negative against Israel without getting labeled as anti-Semitic. The war has made the situation even worse. Everyone knows it, but very few are willing to talk about it openly. Nobody wants to loose their job, be ostracized by their neighbors or cause a familial rift by saying anything negative about Israel. Sad but true.
israelism is a sickness
Also it is not wild at all, but you know what is? Discussing mundane flight schedules and miles about travel to a country that is literally trying to wipe out a whole ethnic group via genocide. Literally murdering and killing innocent men, women and a lot of children, and you are discussing flight schedules and mile-earning opportunities to the country that is doing it - I'd say that's pretty wild, pretty sick and immoral.
@vlcnc
Are you talking about the US?
@vlcnc If Israel really wanted to wipe out all Palestinians do you really think the death toll would only be about 40k (based on Hamas' probably inflated figures)? Keep in mind that a large number of those killed are Hamas fighters, and most of the civilians would not have been harmed but for Hamas embedding itself in civilian areas such as hospitals and schools. Israel is not the group who has pledged to wipe out another race/ethnicity/religion.
Meh, they could... but if they're stupid enough to ever actually do it, then we really WOULD see every Muslim (ya know, 1 out of every 6 people) seek nothing less than their destruction. Only takes one.
Meh, they could... but if they're stupid enough to ever actually do it, then we really WOULD see every Muslim (ya know, 1 out of every 6 people) seek nothing less than their destruction. Only takes one.
It's only "a large number" because (even by Haaretz's admission) they're labeling any male older than a preteen as "Hamas"
@jallan - we actually don't know the death toll, 40,000 are the bodies accounted for but the UN has estimated it is likely way higher than that upto 200,000. Next.
Try as the imperialist west with the US as its lead might to normalise things with Israel by pretending everything is fine including running scheduled flights there during a literal war and genocide, they can't because it is not normal and we shouldn't be having scheduled service there while this is going on and it is frankly insane that so many accept it as normal including this blog which was discussing transferring miles to the...
Try as the imperialist west with the US as its lead might to normalise things with Israel by pretending everything is fine including running scheduled flights there during a literal war and genocide, they can't because it is not normal and we shouldn't be having scheduled service there while this is going on and it is frankly insane that so many accept it as normal including this blog which was discussing transferring miles to the genocidal entities national airline's frequently flyer scheme. Literally the banality of evil.
Israelis are going about their business as normal and flying between New York and Tel Aviv, so the airlines will keep selling seats.
you mean what I learned in tiktok doesnt matter? SHOCKING
:-) :-)
I'm not convinced they are. This is political decision not economic. It's why in the UK we have Israeli made Sabra Homous rotting on shelves because no one will buy it, but supermarkets still won't delist it, despite the fact with any other product not selling well that's exactly what they'd do. You're deluded if you think there is demand for flying to Israel right now to sustain flights like this.
Sabra hummus isn’t rotting on shelves. I buy it as do others. The stock is replaced frequently.
I can only speak for the UK, and it most definitely is. Constanly piled high and on offer. Hardly anyone buys it.
See, we know this is BS because Sabra is a US-based company. The humus might be kosher, but that doesn't mean it's Israel.
It is 50% owned by an Israeli company that sponsors an elite unit of the IOF. Also the British Sabra is 100% Israeli made and imported from there as it's made by Osem. Try again.
Delta and United Cancel Occupied Palestine Flights
Wrong, it’s ISRAEL.
Yes, Israel...a genocidal apartheid state.
The State of Israel is neither of those things.
Delta continues to be irresponsible running their operation. The chance their flight will not be operating tomorrow is like 99.9%. Why waste everyone’s time by not bothering to cancel it yet? Seems they have learned nothing from their big meltdown. Baffling
Hubris.
guys don't tempt fate here