US, European Airlines Relaunch Flights To Israel As Ceasefire
United, Delta and American said on Friday they were resuming flights to Tel Aviv after Israel and Hamas agreed to a violent ceasefire that included rockets fired at Ben-Gurion International Airport.
Delta Air Lines operated its first flight from New York to Tel Aviv since early last week on Friday evening, with the first return trip on Sunday.
Delta “will closely monitor the safety situation and make adjustments to our flight schedules if necessary,” spokesman Morgan Durrant said.
United Airlines also announced that it resumed service on Friday evening, with a flight from Newark, New Jersey, to Tel Aviv.
Travelers at Ben Gurion International Airport, May 7, 2021 (Yossi Aloni / FLASH90)
A spokeswoman said the airline also plans to resume flights from Chicago and San Francisco over the weekend. United halted flights from the three U.S. cities to Israel on May 12.
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American Airlines announced plans to restart New York-Tel Aviv flights on Monday.
Lufthansa, Austrian and Swiss airlines also announced they would renew flights to Israel on Sunday, Channel 12 reported.
Emirates Airlines and FlyDubai still operate the shuttle between Israel and the Gulf.
Most foreign airlines canceled flights to and from Israel last week due to rocket fire at the country by terrorists in the Gaza Strip.
Airlines withdrew from Israel despite arrangements for inbound flights to land at Ramon International Airport in the south instead of the main international terminus at Ben Gurion International Airport, after a number of Rocket barrages fired from Gaza targeted Ben-Gurion near Tel Aviv.
Passengers were to disembark at Ramon and board buses to return to the center of the country; meanwhile, empty planes flew to Ben-Gurion to pick up new passengers before returning to their overseas destinations.
The new Ramon Airport, named in memory of Ilan and Asaf Ramon, during the official opening ceremony, near the city of Eilat, in southern Israel, on January 21, 2019. (Yonatan Sindel / Flash90)
Hamas then said it was targeting Ramon Airport in the middle of a roadblock towards Israel’s southernmost city, Eilat, using a rocket it said could strike anywhere in the world. Israel.
The decision aimed to widen the air corridor used by passenger flights to and from the country and to minimize the number of planes filled with passengers on the ground at a given location, in order to reduce the chances of rocket fire in from Gaza affect. a plane.
The flight cancellations came just as Israel was poised to be one of the world’s most unlimited destinations or departure points in terms of coronavirus limitations.
A mass inoculation program that has already vaccinated more than half of Israel’s population has reduced daily infection rates from thousands at the start of the year to just a few dozen.
