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.
American resuming New York to Tel Aviv route
As of March 28, 2026, American plans to resume daily nonstop flights between New York (JFK) and Tel Aviv (TLV). Specifically, the flight will operate with the following schedule:
New York to Tel Aviv departing 11:25PM arriving 5:00PM (+1 day)
Tel Aviv to New York departing 12:35AM arriving 5:25AM
The 5,677-mile flight is blocked at 10hr35min eastbound and 11hr50min westbound. American plans to use a Boeing 777-200ER for the route, featuring 273 seats. This includes 37 business class seats, 24 premium economy seats, and 212 economy seats. Tickets are expected to go on sale over the weekend, so by October 27, 2025.
Interestingly, there was a hint last week that this route announcement was imminent. It’s normal for airlines to hire flight attendants who speak the languages for the destinations they serve, given that there need to be a minimum number of “language speakers” on each flight. JonNYC recently flagged how American was hiring Hebrew speaking flight attendants, which seemed like a big hint.
It’s not surprising to see American now returning to Israel, given that there’s a ceasefire (let’s see how things evolve, though, from a security standpoint).
American has taken a different strategy than Delta and United during the war, as Delta and United kept operating flights when it was possible, and then suspending flights when it wasn’t possible. It’s hard to say which strategy was better. On the one hand, Israel can be a lucrative market for airlines. On the other hand, when you can’t operate service reliably, the economics are challenging, since network planning is a long term project.
American’s interesting history flying to Israel
Prior to the pandemic, American didn’t fly to Tel Aviv at all. Now, predecessor US Airways did fly there until 2013, but those flights were discontinued when the merger happened.
However, in May 2021, the airline launched a New York to Tel Aviv route, and then in June 2021, American launched a Miami to Tel Aviv route. Then in June 2022, American was supposed to launch a Dallas to Tel Aviv route, but that never ended up materializing, due to delays with new aircraft deliveries (or so American claimed).
It’s weird, because for some time, it looked like American was going to become a real competitor in Israel. But then we saw American cut its Miami to Tel Aviv route in March 2023 (before the war started), and also continue to push back its Dallas to Tel Aviv route, before just suspending it indefinitely.
It’s not surprising to see American first return to Tel Aviv out of New York, as it seems like there can never be enough capacity between those two markets. Then again, I was shocked when American couldn’t make Miami to Tel Aviv work, since you’d think that would be a strong market.
In terms of the competitive landscape:
- United has historically been by far the strongest US carrier in Israel, and has operated by far the most service
- Delta has operated a limited amount of service to Israel for a long time, but also has a relatively new partnership with EL AL, which has a lot of potential (I have to imagine there will eventually be an investment from Delta)
- American doesn’t have either of those advantages, but it is part of the oneworld transatlantic joint venture, and no other airline in that joint venture flies between the United States and Israel
Bottom line
As of March 2026, American Airlines plans to resume its New York to Tel Aviv route. American hasn’t served Israel since October 2023, and it’s not surprising to see New York be the first market out of which this service is offered. However, it’s just strange to me that the airline couldn’t make the Miami to Tel Aviv market work.
It’s fun how we recently had a hint that this route would be resumed, given that American is already hiring Hebrew speaking flight attendants.
What do you make of American resuming New York to Tel Aviv flights?