Delta pauses flights between New York City and Tel Aviv due to regional conflict

Delta Airlines has postponed all flights between New York’s John F Kennedy airport and Tel Aviv until at least 31 March because of the conflict in the Middle East, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Delta is continuously monitoring the evolving security environment and assessing our operations based on security guidance and intelligence reports and will communicate any updates as needed,” the airline said.

“As always, the safety of customers and crew remains paramount. Customers should be prepared for possible adjustments to Delta’s TLV flight schedule, including additional cancellations on a rolling basis.”

The company is providing a travel waiver for all fliers who purchased travel to and from Tel Aviv before 31 March 2025.

Delta’s announcement comes about a week after the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people, among them more than 40 Americans. Hamas militants also kidnapped at least 251 people, and approximately 100 remain in Gaza, NBC News said.

Israel responded to the Hamas attack with a military campaign in Gaza. The Gaza ministry of health reports that nearly 42,000 people have been killed, ABC News said.

The fighting in Gaza has since ballooned into a regional conflict and spurred fears that the conflict will worsen still more. Hezbollah, a group allied with Iran, on 8 October 2023 began firing rockets at northern Israel from Lebanon in support of Hamas.

The clashes intensified after Israel bombed southern Lebanon, on Beirut’s southern outskirts, and the Beqaa valley, and sent ground troops across the border.

While the conflict continues, Joe Biden’s administration has warned that the US would potentially withhold military assistance to Israel if the country does not address the growing humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, per the Washington Post.

Lloyd Austin, the US defense secretary, and Antony Blinken, the secretary of state, told top Israeli officials that the country needed to make sure that non-militants had access to food and other essentials, and that they had one month do so, the paper said.

Delta’s decision is in keeping with other major airlines’ service changes. United Airlines has paused flights to Tel Aviv for “the foreseeable future”. Virgin Atlantic is postponing all flights to the Israeli city until the end of March, according to Reuters.

Ryanair, Europe’s largest economy air carrier, has canceled Tel Aviv flights until 31 December, the newswire said.

Flights to Lebanon have also been affected. Qatar Airways has temporarily put on hold flights to Lebanon, Iraq and Iran. Aegean Airlines said it was canceling flights to and from Beirut until 6 November and to and from Tel Aviv until 5 November, Reuters said.