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Wizz Air and Lufthansa Group are among the first major international carriers to confirm their return to Tel Aviv following the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, which is expected to go into effect starting Jan. 19 but on Jan. 16 hit hurdles within the Israeli government that may result in a delay of the agreement’s implementation.
Air travel to Israel has been restricted since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks and the ensuing conflict in Gaza. Many Western airlines have also suspended flights to other parts of the Middle East in recent months, including Jordan and Lebanon, amid escalating regional tensions.
However, with increasing optimism surrounding the ceasefire—the most significant breakthrough in 15 months of war—Wizz Air has resumed flights to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport (TLV) from several European destinations.
The ULCC has restarted operations from points including Athens, Bucharest, Budapest, Krakow, London Luton, Milan, Vienna and Warsaw, according to Flightradar24. The airline has also resumed flights to Amman, Jordan, from Budapest and London Luton.
Lufthansa Group plans to resume service to Tel Aviv on Feb. 1 through its airlines, including Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Eurowings, Lufthansa, and Swiss. However, routes to Tehran, Iran, remain suspended until Feb. 14, and flights to Beirut, Lebanon, are paused through Feb. 28.
Air France confirmed to Aviation Week that flights between Paris Charles de Gaulle and Tel Aviv are expected to resume on Jan. 24, while service to Beirut is set to return on Jan. 31. KLM’s Amsterdam-Tel Aviv service remains paused until March 29 although the carrier says it is “continuously monitoring the situation.”
Air France-KLM Group subsidiary Transavia France also expects to resume flights to Tel Aviv on Jan. 27, while its Beirut operations will remain suspended until the end of the winter 2024-25 season. Similarly, Dutch LCC Transavia has suspended its Beirut and Amman routes through the same period.
Prior to the ceasefire agreement, Ryanair expressed plans to operate a full summer schedule to and from Tel Aviv. The latest schedules filed with OAG show that the Irish airline intends to resume five routes from March 30—including from Turin and Vienna—growing to 22 routes from May.
Other airlines, including British Airways, Cathay Pacific, and Delta Air Lines, previously canceled all flights to Israel through the end of March. Delta told Aviation Week that its position remains unchanged following the ceasefire, but the airline is closely monitoring the security situation and assessing operations based on updated intelligence and security guidance.
There are currently about 702,000 departure seats available from TLV during January 2025, OAG data shows, marking a reduction of 35% compared with the corresponding month in 2023 before the Oct. 7 attacks. The airport is served by 33 carriers at the present time, down from 65 in January 2023.
Earlier this week, Arkia Israeli Airlines unveiled plans to launch a new service between Tel Aviv and New York in February amid an ongoing capacity shortfall between Israel and the U.S. Flights to New York John F. Kennedy International Airport will start on Feb. 8 using an Airbus A330-900 leased from Spanish-Portuguese charter carrier Iberojet.
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