The union which represents flight attendants at United Airlines has confirmed that all crew members who were in Tel Aviv and Amman when Iran launched a massive coordinated drone and missile attack on Israel have been safely evacuated out of the “area of conflict”.
In a statement, the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA) said: “We can confirm all known AFA members who were within areas of concern are now out or within safe airspace.”
United Airlines is the only US-based carrier to have resumed flights to Tel Aviv following the October 7 terror attack in Southern Israel. Unlike most other carriers who have resumed flights to the country, United does have pilots and flight attendants stay overnight in Tel Aviv.
As airspace throughout the region was closed in response to the Iranian military offensive on Israel on Saturday night, United was forced to cancel its daily service between Newark and Tel Aviv, effectively leaving some crew members stuck in the city.
Although United has canceled its Tel Aviv service until Wednesday at the earliest, those stranded crew members have now been evacuated out of the country.
United resumed service to Tel Aviv on March 2, initially with a technical stopover in Munich, where there was also a crew change, before operating non-stop flights from March 6.
The fact that the flight is non-stop means that crew members have to layover overnight in a hotel in Tel Aviv, although United says that it worked with security experts, as well as US government officials, to develop special protocols to keep staffers safe.
Other international airlines operating flights to Israel are avoiding laying over their crew members in Tel Aviv, and many, including Lufthansa and Air France, have also cancelled flights to the city for the next couple of days.
On Monday, British Airways did resume its service to Tel Aviv but the airline has added a technical stop in Larnaca for a crew changeover so as to avoid the need for a layover.
United Airlines did not respond to a request for comment.
