Over a week after a rocket attack penetrated air defenses and struck the outskirts of Tel Aviv’s main international airport, several carriers–including both US carriers–have extended flight cancellations to Israel.
Flight Cancellations To Israel Extended: Star Alliance Carriers Take A More Cautious Approach Than SkyTeam
On May 4, 2025, a rocket attack from Yemen penetrated Israel’s Arrow 3 missile defense system and US-made THAAD missile defenses, landing near aircraft parked on the runway outside Terminal 1 at Ben Gurion (TLV), Tel Aviv’s main airport, on Sunday morning. While six people were injured, there were no deaths or life-threatening injuries and the airport was only closed for 30 minutes.
The Lufthansa Group, which was set to resume service to Tel Aviv on May 18th, has extended flight cancellations through May 31, 2025. While United Airlines and Delta say that service suspensions are being evaluated on a day-by-day basis, United just pulled its Tel Aviv flight through June 12th. Delta still plans to resume service on May 20th. Air France and KLM have also pushed back their flihgt resumption date.
As it stands now, the following major carriers have suspended service to TLV through the date indicated below:
- Aegean Airlines – through May 16, 2025
- Air France – through May 20, 2025
- Air India – through May 25, 2025
- Austrian Airlines – through May 31, 2025
- British Airways – through June 14, 2025
- Brussels Airlines – through May 31, 2025
- Delta Air Lines – through May 20, 2025
- Eurowings – through May 31, 2025
- Iberia Express – through May 31, 2025
- ITA Airways – through May 18, 2025
- KLM – through May 31, 2025
- LOT Polish – through May 18, 2025
- Lufthansa – through May 31, 2025
- Ryanair – through May 21, 2025
- Swiss International Air Lines – through May 31, 2025
- United Airlines – through June 12, 2025
- Wizz Air – through May 14, 2025
Several carriers have maintained or since resumed service, including:
- Arkia
- Azerbaijan Airlines
- Blue Bird Airways
- Cyprus Airways
- El Al
- Electra Airways
- Ethiopian Airlines
- Etihad Airways
- Flydubai
- Georgian Airways
- Hainan Airlines
- HiSky
- Israir
- Smartwings
- TAROM
- Transavia
- Tus Airways
Why the dichotomy? Are some carriers being overly cautious? Is it more a function of reduced demand in light of passenger fears? Do supply chain and other logistical factors play into this? Are unions pushing back against resuming service? Insurance concerns?
In a word, yes. I don’t think any carrier is suspending service for any one factor alone, but there’s great expense involved in pausing and resuming service and some carriers are taking a more conservative approach out of a hesitation to ramp up only to have to ramp down again.
CONCLUSION
United Airlines and carriers from the Lufthansa Group have just extended flight cancellations to Israel, as has Air France and KLM. While Israel has assured carriers that airspace in and around Tel Aviv is safe, a handful of carriers are taking a more cautious approach. If your travel plans are impacted, rebooking options will be limited: if you must travel, consider the list above and that carriers have announced rolling delays in the return of service, a move that makes advance planning very difficult.
image: British Airways
Long time lurker, first time commenting.
I’m not sure which sources you’re using, but according to KLM’s own website, they won’t be resuming flights to TLV until the 30th of May 2025, and Air France has (re)cancelled their TLV flights since the 4th of May 2025 (with no info when they’ll resume).
Alex – thanks for this. I took a closer look and see the Air France / KLM flights that have been operating are EL AL codeshares, with their own services still suspended.
Insurance policies on aircraft are probably also playing a role as well.
I’ve updated this post with clarification on the Air France / KLM schedule.
Interesting that AF/KL suspended service but not their low-cost HV ‘stepchild’ …
And sadly ironic that Azerbaijan appears to already be over their J2 8243 tragedy …,.
Money talks !