A recent Jewish Insider article noted that U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) sent a letter to “American Airlines, Delta Airlines and United Airlines expressing concerns about their decision to suspend flights to Israel without the FAA advising that such flights are unsafe.”
This is an important development as the chaos caused by flight cancellations in Israel has become unbearable and unnecessarily penalises people who fly to or from Israel without adequate policies or transparency.
I am one of the many people who have been affected by these cancellations recently. I had purchased tickets for a flight to the USA on August 2nd with a major US airline in the spring. The airline had cancelled the flight about 36 hours beforehand due to “unrest” in the Middle East.
This was the second major wave of flight cancellations to Israel. The first occurred after the October 7 attack. In both cases, the cancellations rewarded terrorist groups. In October, this happened because Hamas had attacked Israel, and in August because of threats from Iran and Hezbollah.
It is important to note that these cancellations are not just for a day or a week, but stretch out over months. Now, it seems that these cancellations will mean that Israel will be cut off from international flights on many airlines for most of 2024.
This is not because Israel’s air defenses are worse than in previous wars. In fact, Israel’s air defenses are better. Israel’s Arrow air defense system and David’s Sling have proven themselves in this war. The United States has also helped to strengthen Israel’s defenses.
Yet despite more support and better systems, international airlines are still canceling flights. This has not happened in previous wars. Israel fought Hezbollah in 2006 and Hamas in 2009, 2012 and 2014, and there were short bouts in 2018 and 2021 as well, and there were no long-term mass cancellations.
The report on Torres’ letter said he wanted to stop the suspended flights “to prevent the appearance and substance of discrimination against the Jewish state.” The report said: “American Airlines has announced that it will extend the suspension of flights to Israel through April 2025.”
Torres wrote: “The suspension lasted so long and was so comprehensive that El Al, an Israeli airline, is now the only airline offering direct flights from America to Israel. The lack of competition has made flights to Israel less available and less affordable, leaving customers at the mercy of a de facto monopoly that can raise prices with impunity.”
When my family’s flight was canceled in early August, the airline offered us no solution. Instead, we had to rush to find an Israeli airline that would fly us to Athens. Then we had to spend the night in Athens and board a German airline that flew us to Newark via Munich.
In the end, we spent more than $10,000 on new tickets and a hotel. The solution is not for Israeli airlines to pick up where foreign airlines left off. Prices on Israeli airlines have skyrocketed, making many international trips unaffordable or inconvenient.
Nothing new
There is no transparency or justification for the mass cancellations. The fact that Iran decides to threaten Israel should not become the new norm for travel chaos in Israel. The fact that Hamas decided to start a genocidal war against Israel was not a good reason for international airlines to punish Israel for Hamas’ crimes.
The decision to cancel the flights is not due to the new rocket threat from Hamas. Hamas is now weakened and its capabilities are weakened. Hezbollah and Iran have rockets. However, terrorist groups like Hezbollah should not be allowed to dictate which region people can travel to. This is a victory for Hezbollah and Iran.
It is clear that the recent war has triggered a new trend. The decision by airlines to cancel flights is a new phenomenon. In previous wars, this did not happen over such a long period of time. The logic behind the cancellations is not clear. There are hardly any affordable alternatives.
Israel is isolated by these decisions, and that does not bode well for countries facing terrorist threats or threats from authoritarian regimes. Given that Israel has the best air defenses in the world and is supported by the US and the West, the decision by Western commercial airlines to cancel flights for an extended period of time does not bode well.
In the absence of a solution, Israeli airlines should also be required to keep their prices affordable, rather than continuing with their current practice of skyrocketing prices.
