One of the biggest airlines in the world, United, has announced it will resume flights to Tel Aviv, Israel for the first time since October after a “detailed safety analysis”, despite the ongoing conflict in the region. 

United said it would resume a non-stop daily service between New York’s Newark Airport and Tel Aviv’s Ben-Gurion Airport from 6 March after suspending its services to the country over safety fears following the surprise attack by fundamentalist group Hamas and Israel’s subsequent military action in Gaza. 

The non-stop flights will be preceded by two flights stopping in Munch which United said will “ensure all service providers are ready to support non-stop service”. 

The airline said it was aiming to begin a second daily Tel Aviv flight “as soon as May” and would evaluate the potential of recommencing services from some of its other US airport hubs, such as San Francisco and Chicago O’Hare, closer to the end of the year in North American autumn. 

While many international airlines suspended services to Tel Aviv in October, Ben Gurion airport remained open despite missile attacks targeting the site early on in the recent round of conflict. 

Though United’s decision to return to Israel makes it the first US airline to do so since Delta and American also suspended services in October, some international airlines have already resumed services with Lufthansa offering connections between Frankfurt and Munich from January alongside its sibling airlines SWIZZ and Austria.

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