Emirates airline will restart Tel Aviv-Dubai route in 2026

Emirates was the only UAE carrier flying wide-body Boeing 777s on the route, offering First and Business cabins, lie-flat seats, and serious cargo capacity.

By Jewish Breaking News

Emirates appears to be eyeing a return to Israel, with KAN reporting that the Dubai flag carrier intends to restart Dubai–Tel Aviv flights in early 2026.

The report, echoed by the Jerusalem Post, stresses that no landing slots have yet been approved at Ben-Gurion Airport and tickets are not on sale, meaning this is a signal of intent rather than an official relaunch.

The route has been frozen since Emirates suspended flights to Tel Aviv in October 2023 following Hamas’s October 7 massacre and the ensuing war, part of a broader wave of foreign carriers pulling back from Israel.

Over the past year the airline repeatedly pushed off its return date, from an initial October 2025 target to the summer 2026 schedule, and then quietly removed all Tel Aviv services from its published timetable altogether.

That left Emirates’ low-cost partner flydubai to carry the load, operating up to eight–ten narrow-body rotations a day between Tel Aviv and Dubai and feeding passengers into Emirates’ global network via codeshare.

For Israeli travelers, the stakes are bigger than a logo on the tail.

Emirates was the only UAE carrier flying wide-body Boeing 777s on the route, offering First and Business cabins, lie-flat seats and serious cargo capacity into Dubai’s mega-hub and onward to Asia, Australia, and Africa.

Its withdrawal tightened premium-class supply and forced business travelers, exporters, and tour groups onto a patchwork of smaller jets and mixed-carrier itineraries, often at higher cost and with less flexibility.

A genuine comeback would restore that long-haul “bridge” and send a strong signal that aviation ties born out of the Abraham Accords are resilient even after a brutal war.

Still, the picture is messy. Aviation data services as recently as mid-November showed Emirates deleting Tel Aviv from its forward schedule and scrapping the previously planned 2026 restart, framing the move as a full withdrawal “for the time being.”

KAN’s fresh report that the airline “intends” to return in early 2026 suggests the conversation isn’t over, but until Emirates files real flights, secures Ben-Gurion slots and opens reservations, the route remains theoretical.

For now, Israelis heading east will keep relying on flydubai and other foreign carriers that have cautiously tiptoed back, while watching to see whether Emirates’ promised comeback turns into an actual boarding pass.

Ben Gurion AirportDubaiflightsUnited Arab Emirates