American Airlines, Inc. has announced that the company will be ending its lone flight route between the U.S. and Israel early next year, according to a report from Bloomberg.
Financial loss on a flight route that doesn't make money is the reason for the airline ending its flight from Philadelphia to Tel Aviv.
Bloomberg adds that Casey Norton, a spokesman from American Airlines, said that the company has no other reason for ending the flight route.
"It is strictly a financial decision," he told Bloomberg in a telephone interview. "The route has not been profitable."
American Airlines said in a newsletter that the company has lost $20 million last year alone, on the flight route.
"At a certain point, no matter how much we want to serve a particular route, we have to make the right decision for our business," the company said in the newsletter.
American Airlines has faced competition on the route from airlines flying from New York to Israel, according to Bloomberg.
United Airlines and El Al Israel Airlines are the two airlines to operate the New York to Israel flight.
Philly.com reported that Michale Nutter, Mayor of Philadelphia has asked American Airlines to reevaluate their decision to end the flight route.
"In the future, this business decision may be viewed as shortsighted as more Israeli businesses express interest in Philadelphia," the mayor's office said.
The Mayor's office added that American Airlines' ending of the flight route to Tel Aviv will damage the company's "reputation as an international business" and send a wrong message about Philadelphia's "open business-friendly locale," according to Philly.com.
Rhet Workman, managing director of government and public affairs at American Airlines, told Philly.com that they tried to keep the route running as long as possible due to the significant associations that the flight has with the city.
Workman added that the company, though, has not been getting enough "revenues from the passenger side of the aircraft to make the flight profitable."
