Kuwait Airways Bins New York-London Flights After Israeli Complaint

Kuwait Airways has stopped selling tickets for flights between New York’s JFK airport and London’s Heathrow after it was threatened with legal action over a refusal to sell tickets to Israelis.

The feds were considering pulling Kuwait Airways permit to fly in the United States because the airline was refusing to sell tickets to customers with Israeli passports. Still, it made the decision to stop the route to avoid any further trouble with the DOT.

The end of the route came after the Transportation Department investigated the airline’s refusal to sell Eldad Gatt, an Israeli citizen, a ticket from JFK to Heathrow in 2013. “We would’ve preferred that Kuwait Airways relinquishes its continuing boycott of Israeli citizens”.

Kuwait Airways did not immediately respond to requests for a comment.

Gatt filed an official discrimination complaint with the DoT, according to the Israeli news site Haaretz.

“If you’re so anti-Semitic that you would rather cancel a flight than provide service to Israeli passport holders, then good riddance”, New York City Councilman Rory Lancman told the New York Post, reportedly going on to reference the U.S.-led liberation of Kuwait from Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in 1991.

Kuwait Airways claims that it is prevented from carrying Israeli passengers on any flights by Kuwaiti law, which bars citizens from agreements “with entities or persons residing in Israel or with Israeli citizenship”.

In November, the airline petitioned the Federal Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to review the dispute, and in the meantime it announced this week that it would cancel its JFK-Heathrow flight. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said at the time that the case serves as a warning that “any airline that wishes to operate in the USA should know that we will not tolerate discrimination of any kind in our skies”.

Kuwait Airways hasn’t withdrawn its lawsuit against the department, so it could potentially resume flights if it wins in court.