House Democrat Slams U.S. Airlines For Restricting Flights to Israel, Warns Against An ‘Effective Boycott’

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) called on U.S. airlines to resume flights to Israel and warned that continuing to restrict air travel to the country amounted to an “effective boycott.”

Torres, who has been a fierce pro-Israel advocate since the Oct. 7th attack on the country, wrote the CEOs of United Airlines, American Airlines, and Delta Airlines on Wednesday – in a letter first reported on by Jewish Insider.

“I am writing to express concern about the suspension of air travel between the United States and Israel. The suspension has been so prolonged and so pervasive that El Al, an Israeli airline, has become the sole carrier offering direct flights from America to Israel. The lack of competition has made air travel to Israel less available and less affordable, putting customers at the mercy of a de facto monopoly that can easily gouge prices with impunity,” Torres wrote, adding:

Unlike in 2014, when the FAA forbade air travel to Israel (generating considerable controversy at the time), the American airline industry has arbitrarily and unilaterally imposed its own ban on travel to Israel, independently of an order from the FAA. Airlines should be prohibited from effectively boycotting or otherwise discriminating against the world’s only Jewish State.

It is one thing to temporarily suspend air travel to Israel on security grounds as defined by the FAA. But to unilaterally suspend air travel indefinitely until mid-2025, as American Airlines has done, has the practical effect of a boycott.

Given the arbitrary length of the suspension, one could be forgiven for thinking that the BDS movement had taken over the American aviation industry without anyone noticing, much less crying foul. By what logic and in what universe is it safe for El Al to travel to Israel but too dangerous for American Airlines, Delta, and United to do so? It is worth noting that UAE airlines like Etihad, FlyDubai, and Wizz Air Abu Dhabi continue to fly to Israel without incident.

We are calling on every American airline to restore air travel to Israel and to operate based on FAA guidance in order to prevent the appearance and the substance of discrimination against the Jewish State.

Torres’s letter comes over a week after many U.S. airlines canceled their upcoming flights in and out of Israel as a result of heightened tensions between Iran and Israel and widespread concerns of an impending attack from Hezbollah or Iran directly. American Airlines went so far as to announce it would not resume flights until April of 2025.

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