An American Airlines passenger airplane takes off from LAX airport in Los Angeles, April 16, 2015. (Wikimedia Commons/Eric Salard)

(JTA) — American Airlines announced over the weekend it would not be resuming flights to Israel until September 2025, extending an existing pause by an additional six months and potentially sparking a cascade of other airline delays in resuming regular Israel service.

The move makes American Airlines the first United States-based carrier to push back flights to Israel until at least the second half of 2025, amid a swath of cancellations affecting most non-Israeli airlines.

Delta and its partner airlines currently have pauses on Israel flights through March, while United Airlines has not set a return date yet for its own Israel flights.

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Many carriers suspended flights to Israel following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack and have delayed their return to the region citing renewed security concerns including the expansion of regional conflict into Lebanon and Iran. Others resumed flights after Oct. 7 but suspended them amid escalating tensions between Israel and Iran, which has included multiple missile barrages from Iran.

The scarcity of flights and their frequent interruptions have made traveling to and from Israel an expensive, often madcap process. To manage costs, many travelers are opting to fly first to a European city that has budget service before connecting to their final destination — although several budget European airlines, including EasyJet and Ryanair, have also suspended service to Israel through at least spring 2025.

The Israeli carrier El Al is currently the only airline offering direct flights between the United States and Israel. El Al’s effective monopoly on the service since Oct. 7 resulted in an investigation over price gouging and a change in policy that locked in flight rates to and from some European cities.

In a statement, a spokesperson for American Airlines told the Jewish News Syndicate that customers who had already bought flights could get a full refund or exchange them for another airline.

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