F.A.A Cancels All U.S. Flights to Israel

Even though the Israeli war with Gaza rages on, the FAA is allowing commercial jets to fly into Tel Aviv.
The FAA released the following statement:

“Before making this decision [to lift restrictions], the FAA worked with its U.S. government counterparts to assess the security situation in Israel and carefully reviewed both significant new information and measures the government of Israel is taking to mitigate potential risks to civil aviation."

Early on Tuesday, a rocket struck Yehud, a suburb less than six miles from Ben-Gurion International Airport. At the time of the impact, Delta Air Lines Flight 468 was in the air on the way to Israel and was diverted to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. Shortly afterwards, Delta officials announced that it would suspend its service between Kennedy International Airport and Tel Aviv until further notice.

The Federal Aviation Administration followed suit with a complete ban on all U.S. flights to Israel for 24 hours, a decision that led United Airlines and US Airways to also suspend their scheduled flights. Yesterday, the State Department had warned Americans from traveling to Israel, the West Bank, or Gaza due to the dangers from combat and possible rocket fire. However, an anonymous Israeli official insisted that it was safe to fly to Israel, according to The New York Times.

At least three European airlines — Air France, Lufthansa, and KLM — have also canceled flights to Tel Aviv, while others including British Airways are continuing operations as per usual, though with heightened caution.