More foreign air carriers announcing return to Israel

Air France will begin flying to Israel on Saturday; British Airways on April 5.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Encouraged by the successful start of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire on Sunday, more foreign air carriers are returning to Israel, with Air France announcing that its first daily flight will take off from Paris on Saturday.

The airline will be followed next week by the low-cost subsidiary that it shares with KLM, Transavia France.

The Lufthansa Group, which includes its own airline as well as Swiss, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, and Eurowings, announced last week that all its carriers will gradually resume air service beginning February 1.

That date will also see the return of the Italian flag carrier ITA to its daily Rome-Tel Aviv route.

British Airways was more cautious, announcing that it would restart its daily Heathrow-Ben Gurion run only on April 5.

According to Globes, other major airlines, such as Air India, Air Baltic, and Iberia, are expected to announce the decision to restart operations in Israel in the coming days.

The report also said that American Airlines is “currently considering a return.”

American, Delta, and United are the three huge American companies that regularly plied routes from Tel Aviv to many cities in the U.S. before pulling out after the Israel-Hamas war broke out on October 7, 2023, due to safety concerns.

Delta was already scheduled to resume its own flights in April, after announcing several times over the last 15 months that it would do so, but repeatedly stepped back after flare-ups in the fighting.

It remains to be seen if it moves up the timetable due to its rival’s decision and if United follows suit.

Since the war began, the only major carrier with direct flights from Israel to the U.S. has been El Al, and ticket prices skyrocketed as it took advantage of its monopoly.

In an effort to break El Al’s domination, small Israeli carrier Arkia announced nine days ago that on February 8, it would begin three weekly flights directly to JFK Airport in New York in partnership with Airtech, a new company formed by members of Israel’s high-tech industry who were especially suffering from the lack of flights.

Ben Gurion Airport is currently served by 33 carriers, which is half its normal complement. These include the Chinese Hainan Airlines, FlyDubai of the UAE, small European national carriers, and Ethiopian Airlines to Africa.