Posted on 08/23/2015 2:26:54 PM PDT by Nachum
'Industry sources' are accusing @AmericanAir of stopping service to Israel out of a desire to please its partners in the OneWorld alliance.
“Profitability wasn’t a problem,” said an industry source, who asked not to be identified. “The past year hasn’t been easy for the airline industry in general, but that’s far from saying that the route wasn’t profitable. No one would have operated a money-losing route for so many years.”
American made the decision due to the OneWorld global alliance, whose members include Arab carriers like Qatar Airways and Royal Jordanian and the carrier of the Muslim-majority Asian country Malaysia, asserted the source.
Oneworld is the third largest global alliance in terms of passengers flown by its member carriers, behind Star Alliance and SkyTeam. American was one the founding airlines of Oneworld, which helps smooth connections between member airlines and coordinate frequent-flier benefits.
American flew about 95,000 passengers on the route so far this year, an increase of 2.7% from the same time in 2014, according to Israel Airport Authority figures.
But a spokesman for the carrier, Casey Norton, told Bloomberg News that the airline lost $20 million last year on the route and that it had never been profitable. “It is strictly a financial decision,” Norton said.
American began flying to Israel almost two years ago after it took over the route in a merger with US Airways, which had been serving Israel since 2009. After the merger, American signaled its commitment to the Israel route by sending a team of executives to Israel. In meetings with the media,
(Excerpt) Read more at israelmatzav.blogspot.com ...
very easy for us to choose another airline for nearly all of the cities we regularly visit. (AA was almost never a bargain, anyway)
bye bye AA!
Come up with 20Mil for that route and re-establish it.
et tu AAL?
But they were flying from Philly!
No surprise for me. I worked there many years. I remember on 9/11 one of the managers wanted to take down the American Flag in front of the building because he was scared it would attract violence. Fortunately that idea was shot down quick.
How many times have you made an international transfer through Philly?
Are you aware of the labor problems that AA is having in Philly with the former USAir ground crew?
Are you going to extend the boycott to AA code share airlines - like El Al?
Ok. Free market. American capitalism.
If another airline thinks this route can be profitable, they will re-establish that route.
All this means is that folks will have to fly to New York, and take a flight from there to Israel. Big whoop. So what?
I was just looking at Google. I couldn’t find direct flights from Chicago or Atlanta or Los Angeles to Israel either.
It must be a conspiracy! Americans are being denied the right to fly to Israel.
Except for all the flights that exist every day from the United States to Israel.
Purple Texas.
Blue Texas.
Just a matter of time.
I bought tacos with my food stamps.
Well this is an interesting allegation but other Oneworld carriers like British Airways, airBerlin, Finnair, Iberia fly there.
Oh, so does Royal Jordanian, one of the carriers mentioned above as being against AA flying to Israel.
National ‘Play the Victim Card’ day? Second thread on this, then there is the whiner who posted a thread that he can’t get Kosher for Passover orange juice in the grocery store this week.
I quit accepting victim cards - from any minority - a while back.
I hate it when that happens.
Particularly in the summer.
Here's what I think is really going on: TWA owed their staff in Israel a ton of money. They went bankrupt and when AA took over the remains of TWA Israel threatened to impound their planes unless the money was paid.
Now that US Air has taken over AA they may have been threatened with the same and it's just not worth it to continue a route that has questionable viability in the first place. Especially when they can shuffle passengers of on British, Iberia and airBerlin via codeshares.
Thanks for the additional information.
Yep, but only about $15MM left to payoff.
On a route that isn’t profitable in the first place.
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