In a surprising development, American Airlines is making a major adjustment to its long-haul network.
The Fort Worth, Texas-based carrier will withdraw from the Miami to Tel Aviv market effective March 24, a carrier spokesperson confirmed.
Flights will be pulled from American’s schedule later this week, and the airline will contact affected customers with rebooking options once the schedule change is posted.
The 6,603-mile flight is the airline’s longest route from central Miami, and it launched in June 2021. Americans initially flew the route on Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays in the eastbound direction. by a Boeing 777-200 with 273 seats.
The service was so successful that the airline route upgrade to daily service on October 28, 2022, about 16 months after its initial launch. This route is currently operated by the smaller 234-seat Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, but the daily frequency has brought great capacity to the market.
Juan Carlos Liscano, vice president of Miami Americas Center, explains: “The initial reception was strong, but it has really grown beyond that. That’s the main driving force behind our daily service. “. Interview with ABC10 News about service upgrades.
Now, however, just three months later, the Americans are making 180 and canceling the route altogether. When asked for an explanation, a carrier spokesperson shared the following statement.
As part of our ongoing network review, American Airlines has made the difficult decision to discontinue Miami (MIA) – Tel Aviv (TLV) service effective March 24, 2023. We will continue to operate daily service to Tel Aviv from New York John F. Kennedy Airport (JFK). We are proactively reaching out to customers affected by these changes to provide alternative travel arrangements.
Unfortunately, American doesn’t offer much of an explanation for this cut, beyond the usual “constant assessment of our network” stance.
That may upset some of the travelers who booked the flight in the belief that it will continue to operate on a daily basis — especially as one executive is openly upbeat about its prospects.
Sign up for our daily newsletter
When the Americans cut off the flight from Miami to Tel Aviv, it would yield all non-stop traffic to Israel’s El Al aircraft carrieroperates three to four weekly frequencies in the market use Boeing 787 DreamlinersCirium schedule displayed.
That said, Americans aren’t completely out of the Tel Aviv station. As mentioned above, the airline will continue to fly there on a daily from John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in New York.
Before the JFK flight launched, Americans hadn’t flown to Tel Aviv since January 2016, when they flew there from Philadelphia. In addition to the JFK route, the airline has planned connecting Dallas-Fort Worth and Miami to Israel.
Moving from no flights to serving from three hubs seems extreme, but Brian Znotins, vice president of network planning for America, explain why after each person coming to TPG in February 2021.
While there was a lot of talk, the Americans never moved forward to launch the Dallas-Fort Worth flight, cancel it in May 2022 before it came out.
And now, with the Miami service removed, Americans will be left with only one flight from the US to Israel.
That stands in stark contrast to recent moves from major US domestic competitors. Delta has a plan restarting flights from Atlanta to Tel Aviv earlier than planned on March 26th, and it’s already out New route from Boston last summer. Delta also continues to fly to Tel Aviv from New York.
Meanwhile, United continues to ramp up service to Israel, with expanded connectivity from Chicago (four weekly flights) and San Francisco (upgrade to Boeing 777-300ER) included in the weekend schedule update prior to.
United also flies to Tel Aviv from Newark and Washington, DC
