United Airlines could be ‘plotting’ its return to Israel for the first time since the Hamas terrorist atrocity of October 7, 2023, according to aviation insider JonNYC, who posted on social media platform X about the airline’s potential impending resumption of Tel Aviv flights.
JonNYC has, time after time, proven to be a reliable source, although, on this, even he admits that United’s return to Israel is, at best, tentative and might not work out.
Where United could make a technical stop remains open to debate. United operates several flights a week from Washington Dulles to Amman in Jordan but flights between Amman and Tel Aviv remain suspended so this rules out this location, at least for now.
There are other nearby locations, including Athens or even Larnaca on the island of Cyprus, just a short 40-minute flight away from Tel Aviv, with multiple services running daily between the two cities.
Unfortunately, United doesn’t have any experience in flying to Cyprus and probably doesn’t have any contracts for refuelling or maintenance should something be wrong. The lack of hotel rooms going into the summer season would also be a drawback.
Athens remains a potential layover destination, as well as even Frankfurt, although the fact that United closed its international crew base in the German city during the pandemic tarnishes this choice slightly.
In any case, United Airlines is remaining tight-lipped, saying in a statement that flights to Tel Aviv would “remain suspended until conditions allow them to resume”. Considering that more and more airlines already believe those conditions already exit, perhaps United really is plotting its return to Israel.
Last November, United ‘accidentally’ said it was about to resume flights to Tel Aviv from Newark, although the airline had to quickly pull the press release, blaming an external media agency for the error.