Air Canada resumes flights to Israel after extended pause amid war

Air Canada announced that it will resume flights to Israel on Tuesday after having stopped all travel to and from Tel Aviv on October 8.

The schedule, announced on March 14, will initially consist of four non-stop return flights a week from Toronto in April, and then three weekly return flights from Toronto and a once-weekly return flight from Montreal starting in May. 

“In preparation for the resumption of service, we have undertaken an extensive safety analysis, including consultations with government authorities, unions representing our flight crews, and security experts,” the airline said in a statement, adding, “We will continue to monitor the situation in the region and adjust our schedule accordingly.”

Additional airlines that will resume services to Israel

In resuming service, Air Canada joins Delta Air Lines, which announced in March that it would resume service to Israel on June 7, and United Airlines, which resumed flights from New Jersey’s Newark International Airport in March.

The Lufthansa Group (Lufthansa Airlines, Austria Airlines, Brussels Airline, and Swiss), Air France, and Azerbaijan Airlines, as well as the discount giant EasyJet and other European-based carriers, have also resumed flights.

Almost all airlines cancelled traffic to and from Israel following Hamas’s October 7 attack and the outbreak of war with the jihadist group and its allies. 

El Al, Israel’s national airline, has continued to operate to and from Tel Aviv continuously since the outbreak of the war, including a number of ‘emergency flights’ to repatriate military reservists and other Israelis caught abroad at the time of the attack.

In October, US lawmakers called on airlines to resume flights to Israel “as soon as possible.” 

Reuters contributed to this report.