American Airlines’ Philadelphia-Tel Aviv service was a legacy of U.S. Airways Group, with which it merged in December 2013, Bloomberg said. “Unfortunately, that has not been the case”.
Advertisement
About 95,000 passengers had flown on American Airlines’ Philadelphia-Tel Aviv flights since the beginning of 2015, according to Ynet. Load factor is not the only way, nor the best way, to judge a route’s performance. “It’s a very tough decision”.
Tel Aviv and Philadelphia have been sister cities since 1966.
US Airways began direct daily service from Philadelphia to Israel in July 2009, with much fanfare. But during their visit to Israel, executives said the route was one of its most promising.
American Airlines announced Thursday it would discontinue operations in Israel and would terminate all flights to and from the country as of January 2016.
“We looked at every single option with every single aircraft that we have”, Workman said.
In a message to employees, the airline said the route “has never been profitable for our airline”.
American added that customers can still access Tel Aviv through its joint business partner British Airways via London, or through its codeshare relationship with El Al via its European gateways such as London, Paris, Madrid and Frankfurt.
Beyond the US Airways flight to TelAviv, American does not have other flights to Israel.
A report in the financial daily The Marker alleged the reason for the route’s termination was more complex and linked to American Airlines’ membership in the Oneworld airline alliance, which includes several Arab airlines.
Despite Workman claiming that flights were full for the most part, he also added that its “not an indicator of profitability”. “But that’s not an indicator of profitability. It depends on what yield you are getting from your customers”, he said.
Advertisement
“Traditionally in summer UIA provides the residents of the regions an expanded range of travel opportunities by operating non-stop worldwide flights from the cities of Ukraine”, – noted Evgeniya Satska, UIA Corporate Press Secretary.
