United Airlines today announced that it would celebrate the 20th anniversary of its business in Israel by launching a new direct flight between Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport and Dulles Airport, its home airport in Washington DC starting on May 24, 2019, subject to government approval, Globes reports.
United will be the first US airline with a direct flight between the two airports.
United said it had more direct flights between Israel and the US than any other US airline.
The flight to Dulles Airport will be United's fourth daily direct flight from Tel Aviv to the US. It already flies twice a day between Tel Aviv and New York/Newark and daily between Tel Aviv and San Francisco. A roundtrip flight costs $1,000.
"On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of beginning our operations in Israel, I wish to thank all our customers and employees who helped us make United the leading US airline serving the route to Israel," said United senior country director for Israel Avi Friedman. "We thank the Israeli government for its support and the continuing cooperation between us. We expect to continue serving Israel with this new route for the benefit of our customers flying on the route between Israel and the US capital."
Minister of Tourism Yariv Levin said, "I congratulate United on the launching of another route between Israel and the US - a direct route to the White House. The announcement of the route from Washington to Tel Aviv in cooperation with the Ministry of Tourism is a wonderful way of marking 20 years of United's activity in Israel. Opening the route will further increase incoming tourism to Israel and be in addition to the extraordinary marketing effort we are making - an effort that will bring new records in incoming tourism to Israel."
United Airlines' new route between Tel Aviv and Washington will generate connection flights to 70 destinations in the US, such as Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Houston, Dallas, and Fort Lauderdale.