United Adds Flights To Tel Aviv From Washington And Chicago

Intro

Flights to Israel have long been a highly lucrative market, but one that has proven to be complicated since October 2023. With Delta and United both serving Tel Aviv from the New York area, both airlines have had to suspend operations to the region countless times.

However, prior to October 2023, United used to operate quite the schedule to Tel Aviv with flights from San Francisco, Washington, Newark, and Chicago. It seems like United is beginning to bring some of these routes back...

The Details

United currently operates a double daily service from Newark to Tel Aviv with the following schedules:

UA84: Newark-Tel Aviv departing at 15:30 and arriving at 08:55 (+1 day)

UA85: Tel Aviv-Newark departing at 11:00 and arriving at 15:45

Second daily:

UA90: Newark-Tel Aviv departing at 22:50 and arriving at 16:20 (+1 day)

UA91: Tel Aviv-Newark departing at 23:25 and arriving at 04:10 (+1 day)

United is known for having the most global network of the US3 carriers

Well, going forward, it seems that United will serve Tel Aviv 4x weekly from Washington, DC, and 3x weekly from Chicago. While the official schedule has yet to be published, I would presume that these routes will go ahead as planned, unless conflict escalates in the region again.

Delta Adding Second Daily TLV Flight

Interestingly, Delta has also recently announced that they will be adding a second daily flight from New York (JFK) to Tel Aviv for the winter season. The route will, once again, be operated by an A330-900Neo, and seems just to be around the holiday period, as it will be cut come the end of January.

While Delta certainly doesn't have the same incentives to operate as many routes as United, thanks to their partnership with El Al, it will be interesting to see how their route does financially. You always hear about how profitable United is with their routes to Tel Aviv, but the same isn't explicitly said about Delta.

Final Thoughts

United is set to bring back some of their routes from the US to Tel Aviv, as of November 1st and 2nd. While Washington will only become 4x weekly, and Chicago is 3x weekly, it makes sense why United is adding these services. Oftentimes, we see airlines try out new long-haul routes in the winter, due to having spare widebodies sitting around. Additionally, we will see Delta adding a second daily flight from New York to Tel Aviv. Plenty of competition around.