United Airlines announced on Thursday that it would celebrate the 20th anniversary of its business in Israel by inaugurating a non-stop route between Washington, D.C., and Tel Aviv next year, making it the first-ever American airline to serve Israel from the D.C. area, Globes reported.
The carrier will offer direct flights to Tel Aviv from its hub at Washington Dulles, operating three flights a week starting May 22. United will use Boeing 777-200ER for the flights.
The route will give United a third non-stop link to Tel Aviv, which already operates flights to Israel from Newark and San Francisco.
“As we begin celebrating 20 years of service in Israel, we want to thank our customers and employees who have helped make United the top US airline serving Israel,” said United senior country director for Israel Avi Friedman.
United observed it has continuously served Israel since August 1999, when it launched a non-stop route between Newark and Tel Aviv.
“We thank the Israeli government for its ongoing support and partnership. We look forward to continuing to serve Israel with this new service for our customers traveling between the US capital and one of the most advanced science and technology sectors in the world,” he said.
Israeli Minister of Tourism, Yariv Levin, praised the move by United and said, “I congratulate United on the launching of another route between Israel and the US – a direct route to the White House.”
The minister added: “The announcement of the route from Washington to Tel Aviv in cooperation with the Ministry of Tourism is a wonderful way of marking 20 years of United’s activity in Israel. Opening the route will further increase incoming tourism to Israel and be in addition to the extraordinary marketing effort we are making – an effort that will bring new records in incoming tourism to Israel.”
The only other U.S. airline serving Israel is Delta, which operates a route to Tel Aviv from its hub at New York’s JFK. American had flown to Israel from Philadelphia, but discontinued its service in January 2016. El Al previously operated flights to Israel from the Baltimore-Washington International Airport in the 1990s, but later discontinued them.
[Photo: oyoyoy / WikiCommons]