For those who were wanting to travel to Israel, for a while, it was a little more difficult than usual. Airline stock United Airlines (UAL) had canceled service to Tel Aviv. Now, however, that is turning around as United announced plans to restore service to Tel Aviv by the end of the month. Investors proved reasonably glad to hear the news, and sent shares up fractionally in Tuesday afternoon’s trading.
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As it turns out, United has first-mover advantage here, though for how long is unclear. United will be the first United States airline to renew service to Tel Aviv since the war with Iran broke out. Service will restart on July 21, with service between Tel Aviv and the United hub in Newark first to see a flight go out. Then, flights will increase to twice daily.
United released a statement, noting that the move to restart service was part of “…United’s longstanding commitment to serving Tel Aviv.” Further, United emphasized that its service to Tel Aviv is always focused on “…a detailed assessment of operational considerations in the region and close consultation with the unions representing our flight attendants and pilots.” Reports note that a flight to Tel Aviv starts at just under $1,150 for a round trip.
United CleanPlus Gets…Tested
The next item proves to be a surprising, and somewhat frightening, test of an earlier report. Back in May of 2020, United rolled out United CleanPlus, a “…new standard of cleanliness and safety” designed to take on the worst of COVID-19. Given that this was a time when people were afraid to be within six feet of each other, partially thanks to government mandates, this was a valuable addition to United’s arsenal.
But a report from one United passenger suggests that CleanPlus may not be all it was cracked up to be. Brandon Murphy, flying on UA596 in seat 30E on July 6, noted in a post on X, formerly Twitter: “@united Thanks for handing me supplies to clean up blood on the seat myself from the last flight. Really appreciate the trash bag, gloves, and wipes.” Murphy then included a photo of the scene in question, which featured what looked like a lot more blood than you ever want to see on the back of an airplane seat facing you.
Is United Airlines a Buy, Sell or Hold?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on UAL stock based on 13 Buys and one Hold assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 71.84% rally in its share price over the past year, the average UAL price target of $101.54 per share implies 24.6% upside potential.
