Delta, United Resume Tel Aviv Flights; American Waits

Two of the three largest US airlines have resumed nonstop flying to Israel after a suspension that stretched for roughly six months, while the third has pushed its own return more than a year further out — a split that shows just how differently American carriers are still reading the security picture over Ben Gurion Airport.

Delta Air Lines restarted daily nonstop service between New York's JFK and Tel Aviv on September 6, 2026, according to Delta News Hub and multiple outlets including Airways Magazine and Upgraded Points. The first eastbound flight departed JFK that afternoon and landed in Israel on the morning of September 7. United Airlines followed two days later, resuming twice-daily Newark–Tel Aviv service on September 8 using Boeing 787-10 Dreamliners, as confirmed by The Times of Israel and Aviation A2Z. American Airlines, by contrast, has extended its own Tel Aviv suspension to March 28, 2027 — meaning it will have gone more than three years without serving Israel from the time its last flights stopped.

Six months grounded

Delta and United both suspended their Tel Aviv routes as regional tensions escalated earlier in the year, after Israeli airspace was largely closed to commercial traffic amid the conflict with Iran that flared at the end of February 2026. Delta's suspension in particular was extended four times before the carrier confirmed on August 26 that it would resume service, putting the total gap at just over six months. United cited the same closure of Israeli airspace as the trigger for pulling its Newark flights.

Delta's return route is flown with the Airbus A330-900neo, which carries the airline's Delta One business class cabin, and initially operates once daily in each direction — departing Tel Aviv on September 7 and arriving back in New York the same day, according to Delta's own announcement. United's relaunch is larger in scope from day one: two daily Boeing 787-10 flights between Newark and Tel Aviv, rising to as many as three daily flights from early November, per reporting from Paddle Your Own Kanoo and The Times of Israel.

United's return is also just the first phase of a broader network rebuild. The carrier has said Newark–Tel Aviv is the first of four US routes to Israel it plans to restore over the next seven months. Chicago O'Hare service is set to restart in late October, Washington Dulles is scheduled to follow a day after that, and San Francisco is not expected to resume until March 2027 — putting United's own slowest route back on almost the same timeline as American's entire suspension.

Staggered return of US carriers' Tel Aviv routes, from Delta's September 6 relaunch to United's San Francisco service in March 2027

Why American is the outlier

American Airlines has not operated a scheduled flight to Tel Aviv since fighting broke out in October 2023, and it has repeatedly pushed back its own restart date rather than committing to a firm return. According to Israel National News and multiple aviation outlets, American extended its Tel Aviv suspension in stages — first to January 2027, then further to March 28, 2027 — citing an assessment of the regional security environment. That extension also covers American's service to Doha, Qatar, which remains suspended on the same timeline.

The practical effect is that American will be the only major US international carrier to have gone without any Israel service since the war began, while both of its principal competitors resume flying well over a year earlier. Simple Flying and The Travel both reported that American's decision leaves Delta and United as the sole US options for nonstop travel to Tel Aviv through at least the first quarter of 2027, a period that includes peak winter holiday travel and the run-up to Passover.

Airlines set these suspension and resumption dates independently based on their own security reviews, insurance considerations, and operational risk assessments; the differing timelines do not necessarily reflect a disagreement about the facts on the ground so much as different institutional risk tolerances and, in American's case, a stated preference to wait for more sustained stability before committing crews and aircraft back to the route.

What triggered the halt in the first place

The chain of events goes back to the closure of Israeli airspace at the end of February 2026, when the conflict between Israel and Iran escalated to the point that commercial carriers worldwide pulled back from the region. That closure forced a wave of suspensions not just from Delta, United and American but from foreign carriers as well, effectively cutting off much of Israel's international air connectivity for weeks. As the security situation evolved through the spring and summer, airlines began reassessing route by route rather than all at once, which is part of why the return has been so staggered — Delta's four extensions before its August 26 announcement illustrate how cautiously carriers moved even after conditions began to improve.

Delta explicitly framed its resumption as following "a thorough review of the evolving security environment," according to Delta News Hub, language that underscores the airline is treating this as an ongoing, monitored decision rather than a one-time policy reversal. Neither Delta nor United has said publicly what specific security threshold needed to be met for the routes to restart, and neither the airlines nor Israeli aviation authorities have released a detailed account of what changed operationally between the February closure and the September resumptions — a gap that outside reporting has not yet filled in.

What it means for travelers

For passengers, the immediate effect is straightforward: nonstop US-Israel capacity roughly doubles this week compared to the months when only intermittent or connecting options existed, and it will keep expanding as United adds its Chicago and Washington routes this fall. Fares and schedules on the reinstated routes have not been detailed in the reporting reviewed for this story, and neither carrier has said whether one-time suspension-related fare classes or rebooking accommodations remain in place for passengers who were affected by the original cancellations.

The wider industry angle is that a market this contested — New York and Newark both feeding Tel Aviv, with Chicago, Washington and eventually San Francisco to follow from United alone — represents meaningful revenue that Delta and United are moving quickly to recapture, while American is conspicuously sitting out. Masa Israel's running list of airlines flying to Israel in September 2026 now includes both American carriers that resumed this week alongside foreign flag carriers that maintained or restored their own service earlier in the year, leaving American as one of the few major international operators still absent from the market.

No incidents, safety events, or operational problems have been reported on either Delta's or United's return flights as of publication. This is a scheduling and market-access story, not a safety story, and nothing in the reporting reviewed here suggests any airline's decision reflects a disagreement about whether flying to Tel Aviv today is unsafe — only about how much additional stability each carrier wants to see before resuming full commercial operations.

Delta and United Return to Tel Aviv After Six Months — American Airlines Stays Away Until 2027

Six months grounded

Why American is the outlier

What triggered the halt in the first place

What it means for travelers

Sources

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