British carrier Virgin Atlantic will resume flights between London and Tel Aviv from September 25, a week before the High Holidays. Flights can be booked on the carrier’s website with options to connect to the US.
Like British Airways, Virgin Atlantic will offer direct flights between London Heathrow and Tel Aviv, with a short stopover in Larnaca, Cyprus for a crew change, although passengers will remain on board. It is still considered unsafe for the crew to stay in Tel Aviv. In the second leg, the plane will fly non-stop from Tel Aviv to London. Prior to October 7, 2023, Virgin Atlantic operated two daily flights between Tel Aviv and London. From 25 September 2024, Virgin Atlantic will continue with just one daily flight. Virgin Atlantic will use larger aircraft on the route than rival British Airways, which uses narrow-body Airbus A321s.
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With regular connections between London and New York, Virgin Atlantic will hope to take market share from El Al, which has a monopoly on direct flights between Tel Aviv and New York. El Al recently added a flight on the Tel Aviv-to-New York route, and all 280 seats sold out within three minutes. There are almost no holiday seats left on El Al flights from Tel Aviv to New York, except for premium and business classes, with fares ranging from $4,500 to $7,500.
Last week, Lufthansa Group, the largest aviation group comprising Lufthansa Airlines, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Swiss and Eurowings, resumed flights to and from Israel after more than a month of suspension. The group operates multiple flights to six destinations in Western Europe: Frankfurt, Munich, Düsseldorf, Vienna, Brussels and Zurich. Italian airline ITA has also resumed flights between Tel Aviv and Rome today with one daily flight. Other foreign airlines that have resumed flights to Israel include Ethiopian Airlines, Wizz Air, Bulgaria Air, Aegean, Air Europe, Iberia and Tarom. Poland’s LOT airline resumed flights to Israel on Tuesday.
However, Ryanair has announced that it will not resume flights to Israel until the end of October.
Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – published on September 10, 2024.
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