The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has been accused of withholding documents about the advice it has given to US-based airlines that have suspended flights to Israel due to ongoing security concerns.
A Jewish online news magazine known as JLN is now attempting to force the FAA to hand over the documents, which may show whether the agency has tried to discourage airlines, including American, Delta, and United, from flying to Israel.
Both American Airlines and Delta Air Lines have suspended flights from the United States to Israel until March 2025 at the earliest, while United has an open-ended suspension but has removed flights from its published schedule until July 2025.
Following the October 2023 Hamas terror atrocity in Israel, all three US carriers quickly suspended flights to the country, although Delta and United had attempted to resume flights before the security situation in the region deteriorated.
No US carriers have served Israel since August 2024, although the Israeli flag carrier El Al continues to offer non-stop flights between Tel Aviv and Boston, Los Angeles, and New York JFK.
The lawsuit filed in a San Francisco district court by attorneys representing JLN notes that the FAA urged US carriers to “exercise extreme caution” in operating flights to Israel in the wake of the October 7 attack but stopped short of officially telling airlines to suspend flights.
Nonetheless, temporary suspensions have turned into long-term route cuts that have effectively “rewarded terrorist groups and isolated Israel.”
The lawsuit continues: “American carriers’ policies are purportedly geared towards security, but the security situation on the ground does not justify the flight suspensions.”
“Israel’s air defenses are better than they have been in any previous era. Israel’s Arrow air defense system and David’s Sling have proved themselves in this war. The US has also helped bolster Israel’s defenses.”
The JLN filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the FAA in September in an attempt to find out what discussion the agency had with US carriers about the security situation in Israel and whether the FAA discouraged airlines from flying to Israel.
The FAA would normally be required to respond to an FOIA request within 20 days but despite acknowledging receipt of the request, the FAA has yet to hand over the requested documents or even inform JLN how long it might take to process the request.
In August, a Democrat Congressman from New York accused US carriers of effectively boycotting Israel with their decision to suspend flights to the country.
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) said in an open letter to the CEOs of America, Delta, and United Airlines that continuing flight suspensions had effectively become a “boycott” of Israel and that “one could be for thinking that the BDS movement had taken over the American aviation industry”.
The BDS movement stands for ‘Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions’, which is a global campaign to exert economic, political, and social pressure on Israel over its treatment of the Palestinian people.
“It is one thing to temporarily suspend air travel to Israel on security grounds as defined by the FAA,” the letter continued. “But to unilaterally suspend air travel indefinitely until mid-2025, as American Airlines has done, has the practical effect of a boycott.”
Last month, a slew of European airlines also announced that they planned to suspend flights to Israel until May 2025 at the earliest due to the threat of a serious escalation in violence between Israel and Iran and Hezbollah.
