Expansion of Israel Service
 

Avi Friedman, the general manager of united in Israel, in an event for passover mentioned how united is happy from the performance and is considering flights to Israel from a new Hub in the future. Did not mention the origin nor timeline. Source passport news, and israeli travel agent website. Hopefully Chicago. Let the rumor mill begin.

Here is a link in Hebrew

https://passportnews.co.il/the-news-of-united-airlines/

Houston would be more logical IMO as it's also a bit of a tech hub with IAH and the AUS area.

Definitely ORD.

Would this be the long-rumored new LAX route?

ORD-TLV: as at present there is 0 competition on that route. I'm guessing there is demand.

Not a chance.

Bear in Mind one thing
 

If the US waives visa for Israelis which now is a reality with the biometiric passport adoption. More traffic will be possible. Huge saving. Making it even more popular. El AL is really behind the curve.

But one thing Mr Friedman did not say is when ? It could be years from now still.But Ohare will definitely work for me. No direct flights since 2007, I flew EL AL non stop in 1999 from Ohare Round Trip. Excellent.

Erez

With SFO-TLV & EWR-TLV in place, a centrally located USA origin makes more sense if service is increased.

I would say it's from ORD. In the early 80's, my wife was doing a MS at Purdue and she says (if her recollection is correct) that during the school breaks she was flying Sabena between ORD and BRU and the plane was filled with passengers continuing on a BRU-TLV flight.

There is no chance that Israel will be added to the VWP in the near future. While Trump had indicated they were willing to overlook some of the obstacles, doing so would require granting the US access to the biometric database in Israel. That set off a firestorm in Israel, and it doesn't look like either side is willing to concede.

I also think ORD makes the most sense. There is logic of IAH, especially as a connection point to the growing travel from Latin America, but ORD seems like more of a low-hanging fruit, especially after LY left the market reportedly NOT due to lack of demand, and LY has indicated they want to return, so marketing it first would beat LY to the punch.

Oh yea definitely especially when you consider that former Clinton chief of staff and Mayor Rahm Emanuel along with a bunch of other heavy-weight Jewish politicians who reside in the Chicago area you know they will get the new Israeli service.

I would guess ORD, but lots of folks here would love an IAD-TLV service. Friends don't let friends connect in Newark.

I wouldn't even let my enemy connect in Newark.

IAH-TVL almost has to fly over ORD. Chicago makes more sense.

ORD or IAD. El Al has expressed interest in returning to both airports, so I'm guessing UA is trying to beat them to the punch. IAH would be great for connecting traffic to South America, but they would have to time the flights in such a weird way to make that work with reasonable connections.