American Airlines hasn’t flown to Israel in years, but a recent move suggesting a shift proved correct. AA will resume service between New York and Tel Aviv in spring 2026 after a multi-year hiatus.
American Airlines Returning to Israel In Spring 2026, Hiring Hebrew-Speaking Flight Attendants
Unlike Delta and United, American hasn’t operated service to Israel in over two years, and until now, it hasn’t even publicly floated plans to resume. But last week, JonNYC flagged that American is now hiring Hebrew-speaking flight attendants, a move that often precedes route announcements.
Sure enough, American is planning to resume daily nonstop flights between New York (JFK) and Tel Aviv (TLV). starting March 28, 2026 and will operate the following schedule:
- New York (JFK) – Tel Aviv (TLV) dep 11:25 PM arr 5:00 PM+1 day
- Tel Aviv (TLV) – New York (JFK) dep 12:35 AM arr 5:25 AM
AA will utilize a Boeing 777-200 jet for the route.
Historically, American’s Israel service has been inconsistent. The carrier only entered the U.S.–Israel market in 2021, launching routes from both New York and Miami. It planned to add Dallas–Tel Aviv in 2022, but that never materialized. Then in March 2023, American cut its Miami–Tel Aviv route, before the war even erupted.
By contrast, United has been the U.S. carrier most committed to Israel. Delta has also maintained intermittent service and is broadening its relationship with EL AL, the Israeli flag carrier. American, though, lacks those advantages: no joint venture tie-in in the region, and no deep Israel network.
As I suspected, AA was not hiring cabin crew fluent in Hebrew for its New York – Florida routes. Airlines generally staff multilingual flight attendants when launching or relaunching routes to markets with distinct languages. And as I predicted, if American did relaunch, New York–Tel Aviv was the most logical candidate for return, as it is arguably the most stable, highest-demand U.S.–Israel corridor. AA, which faces aircraft shortages and takes a more conservative approach to its network, is starting with one role.
I still think it makes a lot of sense for American to add a Philadelphia–Tel Aviv flight, a route that US Airways once operated but was abandoned when it merged with American Airlines over a decade ago. While the New York market faces direct competition from Delta, EL AL, and United, AA would face no nonstop competition in Philadelphia.
Of course, demand alone doesn’t guarantee success. America’s previous Israel effort ran into geopolitical headwinds and even as we pray for peace in the region, the peace right now is very fragile, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio warning earlier today that Gaza faces another invasion if the outbreak of infighting violence there is not quelled.
CONCLUSION
AA will return to Tel Aviv next year with flights from New York on a 777-200. American’s Hebrew-speaker hiring proved a compelling clue that it was ready to reenter the Israel market and JFK proved a stronger option than PHL for the first route.
If this is a sign that peace is holding, then, I suppose we should welcome it, all of us. I do find it fascinating that something as low-key as ‘hiring Hebrew-speaking flight attendants’ can be telling. Good on the internet sleuths like JonNYC that find this stuff out and report on it (except, if it was actually him, he may have told me that I comment too much, which is rich, coming from him. More is more, Jon. Less is less. You do you, fella.)
I don’t see why they’d prefer to compete over the busy NYC market, with El Al, United, Delta, and also smaller Arkia and Israir.
In MIA they’d only compete with El Al (FLL).
In PHL with none, and provide convenient connections to both east and west coasts.
DFW Was never gonna fly. No demand for Dallas itself and not so good for connecting.
I thought that LY had quit FLL (or was about to) in favour of MIA?
Still FLL.
I think for most Israelis the two are identical. Like EWR is New York.
@Uri – Because all of their competitors fly the route, and to be competitive in a market and continue to attract NYC customers (and NYC HNWI’s for their loyalty program / credit cards), it’s good business to fly where NYC customers want to go? The NYC network for AA is… adequate at best, uninspiring at worst, and this plugs a hole. Also could see folks wanting to do multi-city routings where you fly direct to TLV, and go BA on the way back and stopover in London, etc. so net positive for BA/Iberia as well.
i think most of the demand is TLV based.
HNWIs doing VFF (leisure and business travel to Israel are still very weak) is an existing segment, but can’t be a large part of the demand.
Now of course NYC is the strongest market from TLV across the board. But between fighting for a snap byte of this and haven’t the smaller PHL alone, I’d choose the latter.
Bummed to see a precious wide body frame wasted on TLV. Sure, it’ll be profitable, but I won’t be on it.
Oh no, a widebody without Jerry on it. Horrible waste indeed.
I also won’t be on it because I fly UA, but I’m still ok with widebodies flying other people.
I noted that AAL planned JFK-TLV route depart JFK after 11pm and landed at JFK 5am, a time which landing slots are easier to obtain. On the surface, Delta’s TLV flight is more passengers friendly.
LY has operated night flights westbound for many years. I don’t know how, if at all, it impacts on their demand, though.
El Al has up to three daily flights between JFK and TLV Airport, to satisfy passengers with different departure/arrival time preference. Delta has 1 flight currently but DL and LY are code-share partner.
American Airlines would have to heavily rely on her other hubs to funnel connecting passengers to fill JFK-TLV flights. I am afraid AAL will give up this route after a year or two amid heavy financial loss.
What should they do then? Not compete?
Move the route from JFK to PHL, where AAL has many connecting traffic at PHL.
This should make old man TWA884 happy with a flight to use AA non-rev travel benefits to get to TLV. Some from the FlyerTalk Mod Do should bring it up instead of again discussing me since it’s opportune in LA.
Eww.