Democratic Rep. Ritchie Torres of New York has blasted three major U.S. airlines—American, Delta, and United—for their continued suspension of flights to Israel, arguing that the decision is tantamount to an “effective boycott” of the country.
In a letter addressed to the CEOs of the airlines and obtained by YWN, Torres expressed concern that the ongoing suspension has made air travel to Israel increasingly difficult and expensive. “The lack of competition has made air travel to Israel less available and less affordable, putting customers at the mercy of a de facto monopoly that can easily gouge prices with impunity,” Torres wrote to American Airlines CEO Robert Isom, Delta CEO Ed Bastian, and United CEO Scott Kirby.
The airlines initially halted their flights to Israel following the Hamas attack on October 7, which ignited the current conflict in Gaza. While Delta announced an extension of its suspension through October 31, American Airlines has extended its halt until March 29, 2025. United Airlines has suspended flights indefinitely.
Torres pointed out that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has not imposed a travel ban on Israel since the October 7 attacks, contrasting this with a 36-hour ban imposed in 2014 during a previous conflict. He argued that the airlines’ unilateral decision to suspend flights for an extended period is effectively a boycott. “It is one thing to temporarily suspend air travel to Israel on security grounds as defined by the FAA. But to unilaterally suspend air travel indefinitely until mid-2025, as American Airlines has done, has the practical effect of a boycott,” Torres stated.
The congressman further criticized the suspension, noting that Israeli airline El Al continues to operate direct flights from the U.S. to Israel without issue. He also pointed out that several airlines from the United Arab Emirates, including Etihad, FlyDubai, and Wizz Air Abu Dhabi, continue to fly to Israel safely. “By what logic and in what universe is it safe for El Al to travel to Israel but too dangerous for American Airlines, Delta, and United to do so?” Torres questioned.
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8 Responses
This guy is A+!!
Hmmmmm, must be an election year?
The only thing is, I believe what he doesn’t realize is that the insurance rates to fly in and out of TLV are higher. They’ve gone much much much much higher or their insurance companies are telling the airline they’re not going to cover the airline. If they can’t get insurance, then they’re not going to fly into that airport.
He might be onto something very real if you think about it.
One airline kicked every random Jewish student off of a flight, never gave a reason, and the CEO is still MIA in issuing an apology and faking outrage as he would for any other group with less claim.
The other airline famously had a no Jews policy on certain flights some years ago to appease Saudi codeshares.
And the last CEO….well his airline is becoming comical and dangerous with his “woke” policies so quite honestly, it wouldn’t shock me if he had some strange thing and wanted to pull out of the market regardless.
And CEO’s of massive companies today aren’t what they used to be.
““By what logic and in what universe is it safe for El Al to travel to Israel but too dangerous for American Airlines, Delta, and United to do so?” Torres questioned.”
Umm, the universe in which El Al flies what are effectively military jets which can avoid being bombed out of the sky, as opposed to the other airlines. That would be the logic, presumably, though reducing prices would be nice, of course.
If a plane is destroyed (inflight by an air-to-air or a ground-to-air weapon, or on the ground when an airport is attacked), the airline would be liable since they had no reason to send their planes into a war zone. I seriously doubt any insurance company would insure the airlines. While ships in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean have a problem with Iran taking shots at them, they have small crews and no passengers so the maximum loss is the value of the ship and cargo, and the crew -but not the value of lives and prospective incomes of passengers (especially from the United States). Perhaps the United States airlines would reconsider if passengers signed a waiver of liability (so the airline won’t be sued when the passengers are killed) and the passengers paid a surcharge to
cover the added costs of war-risk insurance and bonus pay to crew.
El Al is cleaning up financially on this. If Israel has other airlines they can probably pick up the business.
the american airlines have no reason to boycott israel – they’re still flying to other conflict zones. if they wanted to, they could also reroute to a nearby airport, such as nicosia or athens or cairo, and let passengers connect to israeli flights such as el al, israir or arkia. if they wanted to…
They should do what BA does; fly to Cyprus and if all clear continue to Tel Aviv.
Unfortunately, Lufthansa and other airlines also cancelled their flights; wonder whether there are some powerful pro-Palestinian lobbyist behind it all.