American, World’s Largest Airline, Stopping Flight to ’Israel’

Local Editor

American Airlines, the world's largest carrier, announced last week that it was discontinuing its route to "Israel", citing financial considerations and loss of revenue on the flight to and from Philadelphia.

But sources in the aviation industry told "TheMarker" financial daily that the real reason is the company's ties with Arab airlines through its 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 Asian country Malaysia, the source told TheMarker.

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.

Further, 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 the Zionist entity 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.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team