UK airline Virgin Atlantic has announced it has decided to permanently cancel flights on its London-Heathrow to Tel Aviv route with immediate effect. The cessation of flights comes after almost 18 months of customers asking, “will they or won’t they,” after the airline deliberated the future of the route and its fit in the carrier’s expanding route network.
In a statement, the airline said, “Customers affected by the cancellation of the route and who booked their flight directly through Virgin Atlantic will receive a notification by email. We apologize for the inconvenience and continue to work to provide the highest level of service even during this transition period.”
Despite the flights on the 2,233-mile (3,572km) route coming to a permanent end, the carrier added that its codeshare partnership with Israeli carrier El Al will continue, thus enabling a continuous connection between Tel Aviv and London Heathrow, with up to four daily flights. “The partnership will provide customers with connection flights to destinations in the UK and the US,” the British airline added.
Having begun operations on the route in September 2910, Virgin Atlantic later suspended operations to Israel on October 11, 2023, shortly after the war against Hamas broke out. The airline has since postponed its return to the route several times, leaving travelers unsure whether they could book with any confidence. Before the escalation of tension with Hamas across the border in Gaza in late 2023, Virgin Atlantic operated 14 weekly flights to Israel on a twice-daily basis.
According to Globes News, the company later announced that it would return in September 2024 with seven weekly flights, which were planned to include a stop in Larnaca en route, but following the escalation in the security situation, it backtracked on this decision.
The latest postponement for a return to the route came in November 2024 when the company postponed its return to October 2025, claiming that the reason for the continued postponement of operations was “challenges arising from the availability of spare parts for the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines, which are adapted to the Boeing 787-9 aircraft used by the company, which requires changes to the flight schedule for 2025.”
Despite the withdrawal of Virgin Atlantic from the route entirely, two other UK airlines have announced the resumption of flights to Israel despite ongoing tensions. British Airways, which restarted flights to and from Israel at the start of April 2025, and low-cost carrier easyJet, which will resume flights at the start of June 2025.
However, with hostilities once again rising in the region, the decision by Virgin could be seen as a prudent one, particularly if the future remains uncertain for the region as a whole, as the airline can deploy the aircraft used plus the slots at Heathrow for other services. The carrier has just launched services to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia and has also announced a new route to Seoul in South Korea from early 2026.
