Israel’s Arkia seeks to continue flying to New York-JFK until at least October 2026

Israel-based Arkia, which has been wet leasing aircraft from other operators to offer direct flights between Tel Aviv, Israel, and New York, the United States, has sought approval from the Department of Transportation (DOT) to continue doing so at least until October 2026.

In a filing, Bulgaria-based GullivAir, which has been wet leasing its Airbus A330-200 aircraft to Arkia from May 15, 2025, requested the DOT to authorize the continuation of their agreement, which will last from November 1, 2025, to October 31, 2026.

At the same time, Hi Fly has been approved by the DOT to wet lease its A330-200s to Arkia on a long-term basis, which GullivAir understood is going to “supplement the arrangement between GullivAir and Arkia Airlines.”

Cirium’s Diio Mi showed that from October 16, 2025, some of Arkia’s flights, like to Amsterdam Schiphol Airport (AMS) or to Barcelona El Prat Airport (BCN), will be operated by Hi Fly’s A330-200s, equipped with 18 business and 251 economy class seats.

Hi Fly's first flight from TLV to JFK on behalf of Arkia should depart on October 31, 2025.

The two airlines announced their partnership on September 28, 2025, with the Israeli carrier promising to utilize the A330-200s on flights from Tel Aviv Ben Gurion International Airport (TLV) to New York John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and to Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport (BKK).

Oz Berlowitz, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Arkia, said that Hi Fly’s A330-200 will enable the Israeli carrier to upgrade its long-haul services, and that it continues executing its strategy and vision “to be an Israeli alternative on long routes at market-breaking prices,” according to The Jerusalem Post.

GullivAir’s two A330-200s, meanwhile, offer 19 business class and 268 economy class seats, according to Cirium’s Diio Mi.

Arkia began flying to JFK in February 2025, when no other airline apart from EL AL, the Israeli flag carrier, had offered any flights between TLV and the United States. Since then, some US airlines, including Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, have resumed flights to TLV.

United Airlines returned to Israel’s largest gateway on July 21, 2025, while Delta Air Lines did so on September 1, 2025. A few days after the latter date, United Airlines announced that it would also launch flights from Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD) and Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) to TLV on November 1 and November 2, 2025, respectively.

Currently, Delta Air Lines runs a daily JFK to TLV service, while United Airlines flights from Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) to the Israeli city are operated twice daily. From November 30, 2025, to January 19, 2026, Delta Air Lines will add another daily flight between JFK and TLV.

American Airlines' current TLV plans remain unclear, as the carrier has not filed any scheduled services to the airport until at least September 2026, per Cirium’s Diio Mi.

Nevertheless, when Arkia began flying from TLV to JFK, the market was dominated by EL AL, which had drawn ire from Israeli customers for its aggressive pricing policies following the breakout of the war between Hamas and Israel that broke out on October 7, 2023, and continued, largely due to the Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister, becoming desperate to stay in power.

The Times of Israel reported that a class-action lawsuit against the airline was filed in June 2025, alleging that EL AL used its dominant position to inflate ticket prices on 20 out of 24 routes. The plaintiff argued that the Israeli carrier “deliberately and knowingly chose to abuse its monopolistic power and harm consumers by extorting prices to unprecedented levels,” the report outlined.

Cirium’s Diio Mi, compiling DOT data, showed that in February 2025, EL AL’s load factors on flights between TLV and EWR and JFK were a whopping 98.3%, dropping to a still-impressive 97% by May 2025, when Delta Air Lines and United Airlines were still flying to TLV before they paused their operations due to security concerns.

Arkia has always had long-haul ambitions, despite the fact that the carrier had never taken delivery of widebody aircraft. (It had leased two Boeing 767-300ERs from Neos in 2018 and 2019, per planespotters.net.)

In July 2016, Airbus announced that Arkia had ordered up to four A330-900s, which would have become the backbone of its expansion “into long-haul and leisure markets.” However, the order never materialized, and the European planemaker’s orders and deliveries filing showed that, as of August 31, 2025, Arkia has no outstanding orders for the A330-900.