According to a report in Crains, Delta Airlines has announced on Friday that it will start daily, non-stop service from NY JFK to Tel Aviv starting next March, becoming the only U.S. airline to fly direct to Israel from JFK.
They will operate with Boeing 767 jets, staff the planes with Hebrew-speaking flight attendants, and offering an expanded kosher menu.
Continental Airlines flies non-stop to Tel Aviv from Newark Liberty Airport, but only Israel-based Israir and El Al Airlines offer flights from JFK. Last March, Delta launched its first non-stop flights to Tel Aviv from Atlanta, and has been enjoying an average passenger load of 80% on the route, according to the company.
(Source: Crains)
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10 Responses
Another option to avoid ElAl.
Nice. Agreed. Let’s see what the fares are – I expect they’ll be competitive.
I flew them in the 1990’s from Israel to the US via Paris. very nice service.
while there is nothing like El Al…..competition is good!
For those of you who are SkyMiles members, Delta presently does fly JFK to TLV codeshare flights with El Al. I came across it purely by accident on Orbitz or Kayak once. Fly on an El Al plane & get miles as if it’s Delta. I’m guessing that arrangement may soon be ending.
Keep in mind you could get AAdvantage Miles as well when you fly with ElAl. DL once had non-stop service from JFK but it didnt last long.
i was this winter on a delta conection from jfk to paris to israel and the fliht was wonderfull a emty plain it was gevaldig
I used Delta codeshare for a flight for Pesach and was bumped by ElAl and had to spend Pesach in Passaic NJ. There were many other codeshares that were bumped with no explanation. I am now trying to get back money for cancelled Hotel reservations.
Anyone out there having the same issue? How was it resolved?
How short is our memory?? delta used to fly to eretz yisroel and when the intifada started a few years ago, they were the FIRST ones to abandon flights to E”Y!!!! why should we support them now?
This is excellent news for the many kohanim who don’t fly El Al and don’t want to shlep out to Newark to take Continental.
This is actually very good news. Besides for the fact that we will have another option in flying this also means that Delta has decided that it is worth it for them to Fly to E”Y every day. It looks like people are having faith in the fact that the tourists are coming. This is good for a country that has been having tourism issues since our “cousins” started making problems in 2000. The more people that come here the better it is for the economy (and in case anyone is going to yell that oy it’s giving money to the medinah – there are a lot of good frum people that benefit from tourism here).