Delta is battling JetBlue to transform Boston into a global hub. As part of that strategy, they announced on 10/3/21 that they would add 3 weekly flights between Boston and Tel Aviv, which launched 2 weeks ago. Delta is operating their flights on A330neos, featuring their flagship Delta One suites. Those planes have 281 seats, with 29 business class suites, 28 premium economy seats, 56 economy comfort+ seats, and 168 economy seats.
El Al had operated that route before COVID and decided to preempt Delta by announcing on 10/5/21 that they would be relaunching service in March 2022 with 3 weekly 787-8 flights. Those planes have 238 seats, with 20 business class seats, 35 premium economy seats, and 183 economy seats.
That didn’t quite happen though, as El Al cancelled the 3rd weekly frequency before launch and began service with just 2 weekly flights.
In the meantime, Delta has just started flying, but is already pulling back from the route in the winter. They won’t fly the route at all from January 8th through March 29th, 2023.
El Al is seizing on that opportunity and will move to 3 weekly flights on the route starting on November 1st, 2022. The flight will operate from Boston to Tel Aviv on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays departing at 8:15pm and arriving at 1:05pm the next day. The flight from Tel Aviv to Boston will operate on the on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays departing at 12:55am and arriving at 5:30am the same day.
El Al has been battling Delta in Boston and American in Miami (I still think Fort Lauderdale would be more logical), but they have shied away from battling United from Chicago and San Francisco to Tel Aviv in the post-COVID world. El Al tells DansDeals that those routes aren’t cancelled, though they are not currently on the schedule. They have been in limbo and are likely to remain there as those are both very strong United hubs and aren’t likely to be very profitable for El Al.
Now the only question is if Delta will add back flights to defend the Boston route from increasing El Al service. Delta tells DansDeals that they don’t currently plan to operate the route during that time period. We’ll have to wait and see if that changes.
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20 Comments On "Delta Bails On Boston-Tel Aviv In The Winter, While El Al Triples Down"
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Dan please push Phil for a new nonstop route
+1
Not fully related but how can I influence United to make their horrible ORD-TLV timetable more Shabbos friendly?
Write to them?
The problem is they want to alternate days between IAD-TLV and ORD-TLV.
It’s absurd how little United cares. At least when the flights were 6:30-2:00, it was possible to fly on Thursday in the summer. Then they changed to 9:35-5:20 in April, making the Thursday flight useless. But at least if they keep it, then when Shabbos ends at 5 in the winter Motzei Shabbos could be an option. But the schedule now has it going back to 6:45 in October. It’s like they’re trying to not let us fly out of Chicago.
Separately, where does flightconnections get their schedules? It has El Al starting out of Chicago October 30.
What’s the most effective way to get the message to someone who with power?
Emailing customer service gets me a generic response.
Same here, out of the 3 flights a week in each direction, only one is possible for frum jews.
It would be great if that could be changed (It’s probably not an easy thing to change, I know in the past certain airlines have modified their schedule around Yom Kippur)
Airlines generally modify YK flights because TLV is closed , not necessarily due to requests.
phew. we get back on the Delta flight to Boston just a few days before they stop flying for the winter.
Looking forward to a price war!!
Dan, why doesn’t anyone challenge El Al with another nonstop LAX-TLV? (And Good Shabbos!)
1. It’s a long flight, guzzles lots of gas, which needs high fares to support.
2. No US airline is dominant in LAX.
3. The most obvious candidate is United, but they would much rather LAX passengers connect in SFO, their dominant west coast hub.
Makes sense. Thanks.
i fly lax-tlv all the time for some reason it seems like us carriers dont even care to compete.
aa delta and united stopovers price out a good $500 more than european ones so meantime not worth it taking stopover with them
United has alienated numerous fliers with their ridiculous fares from ORD_TLV, EL AL would be smart to re-enter the market…as United is also very foolish by flying on Erev Shabbat
Let’s be honest. At this point if LY schedules 3 flights a week, that means in reality they’ll probably fly 2.
I work closely with all of these airlines and the airports. From my direct knowledge, this market pair is not very strong. Delta is using Boston more to allow passengers originating outside of the NY market to have a direct flight to TLV and free up seats at JFK for the local fliers (incoming/outgoing). El Al is going to have some headaches at Terminal 4 at JFK over the next year with the new construction just starting.
Why would the T4 construction affect El Al more than Delta?
tried booking lax tlv with boston as stopover priced out more than el al non stop not sure what delta is thinking
anyways delta got axed in tlv their market share is even smaller than aa
@dan does what lounge can J class customers on Elal use in BOS?