American Airlines Is Returning To Tel Aviv—And A Los Angeles Non-Stop Could Be Next

American Airlines will return to Tel Aviv on March 28, 2026. They will fly daily from New York JFK with a Boeing 777-200, an aircraft that will see a retrofit to offer new business class suites.. This should become bookable with this weekend’s schedule load.

New York JFK – Tel Avi, 11:25 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.+1
Tel Aviv – New York JFK, 12:35 a.m. – 5:25 a.m.

This is big news, because American hasn’t flown to Israel since the Black Saturday October 7 attacks, while Delta and United have restarted and stopped service on several occasions based on security conditions. This was telegraphed last week by aviation watchdog JonNYC who noted that American was hiring for Hebrew-speaking crew.

AA flight attendant openings, languages:
Greek, Italian, Dutch, Hungarian, Czech and Hebrew.https://t.co/i0urjq9zTc

— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) October 16, 2025

What is surprising, though, is that American may also fly Los Angeles – Tel Aviv. That’s a route currently served only by El Al, with no service from either United or Delta. It would be an aggressive play for American, but also potentially a smart one. It’s described as something under consideration in the “medium term” as well as “in sights” for American.

American Airlines hasn’t had as strong a presence in Israel as other U.S. airlines. US Airways flew Philadelphia – Tel Aviv, and American ended that service in January 2016. It wa a huge money-loser, but lasted through the merger because integration issues took priority over focusing on routes like this one.

They were supposed to bring back Israel service with Dallas – Tel Aviv, announced in 2019, but the pandemic intervened. This would have been the most-subsidized flight by the Israeli government. When they did go back to Tel Aviv it was from New York, and then Miami, but they pulled the Miami flight. And then October 7th happened.

American Airlines pulled back more broadly in Los Angeles telling employees they couldn’t compete long haul with foreign carriers. Flights to Asia and South America were losing tens of millions of dollars.

• American was unprofitable in Los Angeles
  
• Losses were concentrated on long haul routes
  
• So they stopped flying long haul from Los Angeles, except to joint venture partner hubs (Sydney, London, Tokyo)

The problem, of course, is that as American became less relevant in the L.A. basin they also became even less profitable, and chased away credit card customers as well. If LAX flyers couldn’t get where they wanted to go easily with American when using their points, they’d shift their spend to other products.

The Alaska Airlines ‘West Coast Alliance’ was supposed to solve this, reinforcing the relevance of the airline to West Coast flyers (and, in particular, credit card customers). But American never built out its planned Asia gateway in Seattle and Alaska has been dismantling its San Francisco hub.

Flying routes like Los Angeles – Tel Aviv is attractive to flyers. This is a headline route, and drives disproportionate card spend. And it’s one where neither United nor Delta today offer service. While El Al has some brand loyalty amongst Israel flyers, theirs isn’t an especially premium product overall. American can compete here.