El Al Israel Airlines has outlined plans to add three new long-haul destinations to its network, as well as further developing its short-haul leisure offering through subsidiary Sun d’Or.
Seattle, Philippine capital city Manila and Melbourne, Australia, have been identified as points the carrier intends to serve in the near future as it seeks to grow passenger numbers by 50% to 7.7 million over the next five years.
Currently, El Al operates flights to five destinations in the U.S., providing connectivity between Tel Aviv Ben Gurion and Boston Logan; Los Angeles; Miami; Newark, New Jersey; and New York John F. Kennedy airports. Weekly flights to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, will also begin in September.
If a Seattle service goes ahead as planned, the route will become the first nonstop link between the U.S. West Coast city and Israel. According to Sabre Market Intelligence data, about 36,400 passengers traveled between Tel Aviv and Seattle in 2019, with San Francisco the largest one-stop market.
Looking east, El Al’s Asia-Pacific network plans have been boosted in recent months by Saudi Arabia’s decision to open its airspace to all air carriers, paving the way for overflights to and from Israel. Oman has followed suit, enabling Israeli carriers to use a Saudi-Oman corridor. It is estimated that the flight time to destinations in Asia will be reduced by up to two hours as a result.
Flights to Tokyo Narita commenced in March 2023, while New Delhi joins El Al’s network in October, alongside the resumption of service to Mumbai, India. If routes to Manila and Melbourne are launched, they would become the sole nonstop Israel-Philippines and Israel-Australia flights, respectively. Tel Aviv-Melbourne would also be the farthest route in El Al’s network at 8,538 mi. (7,420 nm).
Operations to Australia have been mooted for some time, and in March, Israel’s national carrier signed a letter of intent with the Victorian state government proposing to start a Melbourne service by June 2024, with three roundtrips per week. Such a move would add 44,000 seats annually to Melbourne’s market and is forecast to bring a AU$48 million ($31 million) boost to the state of Victoria’s economy.
The Victoria government says a direct service would strengthen trade links—building on an agreement signed with the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce in 2017—and support the international education sector. About 45% of Israeli students studying in Australia were enrolled in Victorian institutions in 2019.
In addition to the long-haul plans, El Al says Sun d’Or will open seasonal routes to Paphos, Cyprus; Tivat, Montenegro; and Ljubljana, Slovenia, during the fourth quarter of 2023. Flights to Istanbul; Porto, Portugal; Naples, Italy; and Zagreb, Croatia, are also in the pipeline.
El Al has a fleet of 47 aircraft and carried 5.2 million passengers in the past 12 months. In the airline’s second-quarter fiscal results, the carrier said it expects to grow its Boeing 787 widebody fleet from 16 aircraft to 22 by 2028, while its narrowbody 737 fleet will rise from 24 aircraft to between 28 and 31.
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