Delta’s plan to announce new service to both Israel and Saudi Arabia just leaked. According to aviation watchdog JonNYC, the carrier intends to announce both flights from Atlanta:

• Atlanta – Tel Aviv, complementing existing service from New York JFK
  
• Atlanta – Riyadh, as part of a planned joint venture with new state-backed Riyadh Air

Also going to announce ATL-RUH at the end of the year and ATL-TLV coming back (barring any more complications there)

— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) July 12, 2025

Delta serving Saudi Arabia, in partnership with a government-funded ultra-premium airline, is absolutely shameless.

They spent 2015 through 2019 lobbying the U.S. federal government to block flying by major Gulf airlines on the basis that they were backed by their governments and therefore it was ‘unfair’ to have to compete against them. Delta is the most profitable airline in the world, the U.S. has treaty obligations to allow these airlines to fly, and they bring options and lower prices to U.S. consumers. However the goal was protectionism for Delta shareholders.

CEO Ed Bastian managed to corral United Airlines and American to go along with these efforts. American even dropped partnership efforts with Etihad and Qatar Airways.

After going nowhere during the Obama administration, Delta’s campaign culminated in an Oval Office meeting with President Trump where Trump chastised then-American CEO Doug Parker for his airline’s flailing stock price. (Bastian skipped the meeting.)

This was a self-interested effort that failed, and since then United Airlines has gone on to partner with Emirates and American has worked more closely with Qatar Airways. Now Delta is talking about sharing revenue with the biggest state-backed launch of a new airline in history.

Delta is against subsidies when it benefits them, and for subsidies when it benefits them, the key determinant of whether or not a policy is good is whether it benefits Delta.

Need I mention the nearly $10 billion in direct taxpayer cash that Delta took during the pandemic, ostensibly to keep people employed that they publicly stated they weren’t going to lay off, all the while shedding workforce that damaged their reliability throughout 2021 and 2022?

Delta also promised no cooperation with a Saudi Arabian airline as it fended off accusations of antisemitism. Of course, times change, could Saudi Arabia join the Abraham Accords and recognize Israel?

Much has changed in that nation, but I should add that it will be interesting to see what happens when a union-organizing flight attendant wears an AFA Pride pin landing in Riyadh.

Meanwhile, the introduction of Atlanta – Tel Aviv (not a large non-stop market, but a feeder of connecting traffic), hinges on developments in the Mideast between now and end of year. If the situation there normalizes – and it could even improve – this is a logical add.

With Iran’s capability to power project in the region crippled (their proxies in Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and Gaza have all been knee-capped, and Israel had no problem gaining air superiority over the entirety of their country), and having shot missiles at its best ally in the region Qatar, there’s a new chance for peace that includes a joint Arab-administered Gaza and true normalization with Israel.

The last 21 months have been brutal for Israel, but the move by Iran via Hamas to interrupt Saudi-Israeli relations and wreak havoc through brutal murder and rape of civilans on October 7th could go down as a truly collosal blunder by anti-Israel forces.