Kuwait Airways drops NYC-London route

Bart Jansen | USA TODAY

Kuwait Airways is no longer selling tickets for flights between New York's John F. Kennedy airport and London's Heathrow, after the Transportation Department threatened legal action for its refusal to sell tickets to Israelis.

"Today, Kuwait Airways informed the U.S. DOT that they will be eliminating service between JFK and London Heathrow," Namrata Kolachalam, a department spokeswoman, said Tuesday.

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The airline didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

"Sorry, we were unable to process your request due to either no operating flight or no seats available," the airline's web site replied Tuesday, when asked for flights from JFK to Heathrow. But other flights directly to Kuwait City or to other destinations connecting through Kuwait are available.

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.

"It is unfortunate that Kuwait Airways has decided to suspend its service, instead of accepting Israeli citizens as passengers,” said Jeffrey Lovitky, a Washington lawyer representing Eldad Gatt, who was refused a ticket because of the policy. “This demonstrates Kuwait’s stubborn refusal to give up its boycott of Israeli citizens.”

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx announced Sept. 30 that the airline broke the law because it refuses to sell tickets to Israelis.

On Oct. 29, department ordered the airline to “cease and desist from refusing to transport Israeli citizens between the U.S. and any third country where they are allowed to disembark,” according to a letter from Blane Workie, the department’s assistant general counsel for enforcement.

But Kuwait Airways has said it declined to sell Gatt a ticket to avoid running afoul of Kuwaiti law, which prohibits its citizens from entering "into an agreement, personally or indirectly, with entities or persons residing in Israel, or with Israeli citizenship.”

The airline filed a petition Nov. 24 asking the Federal Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to review the dispute. The airline contends that it isn’t discriminatory because it will sell tickets to passengers regardless of race, national origin or religion – so long as they hold a passport valid in Kuwait.

Because of that Kuwait law, the U.S. dispute boiled down to flights that didn’t land in Kuwait, such as the airline's leg between New York and London. The threat was that the Transportation Department could block flights to the U.S. unless the airline changed its policy.

Kuwait Airways hasn’t withdrawn its lawsuit against the department, so it could potentially resume flights if it wins in court. Gatt will do everything in his power to ensure that the airline doesn’t resume flights between New York and London until it accepts Israeli citizens as passengers, Lovitky said.