Israel-Bound Delta & United Flights Divert, As Tensions Escalate

One certainly wonders for how much longer Delta and United will try to serve Israel, given how unreliably the service is operating…

Delta & United flights to Israel suspended yet again

Operating to Israel reliably has been a challenge since October 7, 2023, given regional tensions and security concerns. Nonetheless, Delta and United have been trying to operate these flights to the best of their ability, given how lucrative they can be.

Just recently, we saw Delta and United resume flights to Israel — Delta resumed flights on May 20, 2025, while United resumed flights on June 5, 2025. However, this round of service didn’t last long, before being suspended.

On Thursday night, Israel launched a “preemptive” strike on Iran, targeting some of the country’s nuclear sites. Israel did this over concerns that Iran would soon attack it, and this was done without support from the United States. Secretary of State Marco Rubio even specifically distanced the Trump administration from this operation:

“Tonight, Israel took unilateral action against Iran. We are not involved in strikes against Iran and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region. Israel advised us that they believe this action was necessary for its self-defense. President Trump and the Administration have taken all necessary steps to protect our forces and remain in close contact with our regional partners. Let me be clear: Iran should not target U.S. interests or personnel.”

Despite warnings that such an attack was imminent, US airlines still tried to operate flights to Israel yesterday afternoon, ahead of the attack. However, neither flight actually made it to Israel.

United’s Newark to Tel Aviv service (UA84) operated as a roughly 10-hour “flight to nowhere,” making it most of the way across the Atlantic, before returning to Newark, where it landed at 2:38AM this morning.

Delta’s New York to Tel Aviv service (DL234) operated as a roughly eight-hour “flight to nowhere,” making it just off the coast of Newfoundland, before returning to New York, where it landed at 1:44AM this morning.

Both Delta and United have now canceled their Israel flights for the coming days, though as you’d expect, Delta and United crews are partly stuck in Israel, given that they were supposed to work the return flights of these journeys.

I wonder how much longer this service will last

While EL AL has operated continuously since the October 7 attacks and subsequent conflict, other airlines have taken an “on again, off again” approach to serving Israel, or have just cut flights altogether.

The challenge is that Israel is a lucrative market for airlines, but it’s also important to be able to operate service consistently. Just look at United’s Israel service over the past year, as an example:

• United suspended Tel Aviv flights as of July 30, 2024
• United resumed Tel Aviv flights as of March 15, 2025
• United suspended Tel Aviv flights as of May 3, 2025
• United resumed Tel Aviv flights as of June 5, 2025
• United suspended Tel Aviv flights as of June 13, 2025

If this is the level of reliability with which the airline can offer service, surely it doesn’t actually make sense to operate, no? Or are the flights that are operating so massively profitable?

I’d be curious to know how exactly aircraft are being “earmarked” for Israel flights. Airline scheduling is really complex, and it’s a bit of a puzzle, given that we’re talking about fleets of hundreds of aircraft. Are Delta and United actually keeping dedicated planes ready to go when Israel service can operate, do they just have one fewer spare aircraft when the service does operate, or what?

I just don’t see the situation in Israel normalizing anytime soon, so I have to wonder if we might soon see a longer term suspension again, simply for economic reasons. Then again, perhaps Delta and United are happy losing money on this service for some time, so they’re in a dominant position if/when things normalize.

Bottom line

Delta and United have once again suspended service to Israel, as Israel is attacking Iran. Yesterday afternoon, flights took off from Newark and New York, but both ended up returning to their origin, resulting in long “flights no where.”

It remains to be seen how long the suspensions last this time around. I’d be fascinated to know the economics of such inconsistent service.

What do you make of this latest flight suspension to Israel?