The Israeli aviation industry is booming, with El Al, Arkia, and Israir reporting record profits. That’s no surprise, given the high demand for travel to Israel and the inability of foreign airlines to offer reliable service to the Holy Land post-October 7th.
Last year saw the launch of Air Haifa, with a turboprop fleet based out of Haifa.
Last month, Wizz Air announced that it had applied to open what appears to be a subsidiary airline based in Israel.
And now, the Israeli owners of Cyprus-based Tus Airways and Greece-based Bluebird Airlines have received a commercial licence to open Tus IL. It hopes to gain an operational license and begin service in the near future.
By being based in Israel instead of the EU like Tus and Bluebird, it will be allowed to fly between Tel Aviv and airports outside of Europe.
Don’t expect widebody service to compete with El Al’s signature long-haul routes, but Tus IL should give Arkia and Israir a run for their money.
Will Israel be able to support 6 national carriers? Or do you think the bubble will pop? Either way, the added competition will be a boon for Israeli travelers in the meantime!
HT: chff
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24 Comments On "Takeoff Nation: Another Israeli Airline Will Soon Launch Service"
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A lot of connecting traffic was lost when Turkish pulled out.
That being said, these airlines will need to fly to destinations that have good connections, and figure out codeshares or interline agreements for this to work.
These airlines are all about point to point. You can create your own connections, but they don’t want to be bothered with those logistics.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but a considerable portion (if not an outright majority, at least a significant minority) of passengers to/from Israel ultimately start or finish in the US. Otherwise, why would a European-based airline bother with an Israeli-based subsidiary when 75%+ of all international passengers to/from Israel are (initially) bound to/from Europe? (Based on the 2019 and 2024 Natbag annual reports.)
The Israeli domestic market is not nearly large enough to support any major presence on its own. From the same source, it’s around 800K passengers per year, which averages out to 2K-2.5K passengers per day. That should be pretty easy to service with about 15-20 regional (40-140 seat) jets. (Or less!)
If they can’t figure out either direct IL-US flights, or at least the connections from wherever they are flying to the US, then it’s not really a viable long-term competitor. The same holds true for Israir and Arkia. Especially once things normalize and the big guys (United, Delta, Lufthansa, IAG, Turkish, etc.) start trying to muscle back in on one of the most profitable routes around. I could easily see a price war that will absolutely demolish the little guys some time in 2026 or 2027.
I think in today’s airline environment a tiny country like Israel can’t support 6 national carriers. I could see 2, maybe 3, tops. If I had to venture a guess, I would say 1 national carrier (El Al @ 5-6M passengers per year) with 2 smaller semi-national rivals squabbling for a distant 2nd and 3rd place (1-2M passengers per year). Israeli air transport is definitely in a post-10/7 bubble. The question is going to be who is going to survive, and who is going to swallow what parts of the losers.
In 2019, the last normal year, the US was 7.6% of ben gurion ‘s passengers. It peaked in 2022 at 9.98%. I agree that the current bubble of Israeli airlines flying to the US probably won’t last which is why they’re doing it all with wet leasing. But there definitely seems to be room in the market for short and medium haul
Direct US flights were less than 10%, but I imagine the ultimate destination of a large chunk of the flights to other countries ended up in the US. 2.3M people to/from Turkey? 1.4M to/from Greece?
Wrong. Israelis are the #1 traffic of travellers, and they are forever flying all over, especially to Europe. For example, there are 10 nonstop flights daily TLV-BUD. Almost all passengers are Israelis
Isn’t it (at least partially) owned by ELAL’s previous owners?
Very interesting. If they end up having 6 airlines, can one of them please offer a direct flight to Chicago. Even if it only once a week, that is better than nothing.
Not going to happen. You’ll have to wait for United to return for that one.
@Dan, off topic a bit but I have amex gold points and I really want to fly to EY. Whats my best option. I really dont know much. Thanks vm in Advance
Convert them to Qantas points and book an elal flight as Qantas award booking
What about Delta RT?
Thanks, I tried that and every date I check, Im getting this message. What shi do
It looks like there are no flights available for your search criteria. Try searching other dates or destinations. (#7190)
Check other programs to see if they are showing awards availability. If so, try calling (Qantas, Delta, Air France) to book.
Air France is s good option. Some of their offerings use elal for the Tel Aviv -Paris portion.
These are cheap low class airlines. No means of communication with them when issues arise ( like when Bluebird changes their flight to Tel Aviv so I had a 40 minute connection ( in stead of 2 hours) in Athens and could not reach anyone for help airlines of last resort
Buyer beware
I’m trying to understand why, at the start of the war, Delta and United didn’t hire Israeli-based flight attendants and pilots through an Israeli agency…
Let’s see… Insurance on (US or N registered planes), Foreign Crews as an issue with United Unions. While some carriers had overseas bases (I think AA still has some EZE crews?) those are from a different era. Trying to establish a base in a lower cost (relatively speaking) area would be a minefield before even touching the insurance issues (those 77Ws ain’t cheap) and labor issues.
So long story short you will probably see TLV-LIT operate nonstop with connections to NRT from LIT than a US carrier with a TLV based plane (old FT joke with LIT)
First, it’s not like there are large numbers of pilots and flight attendants just waiting around for a job, or even a staffing agency for that. That’s aside from the training they would require. I wouldn’t be surprised if they figured the training would take longer than the war back in 2023.
Second, insurance considerations were also a large consideration.
Third, optics. Can you imagine the backlash to a US airline if one of their planes got hit by a rocket?
Because Unions.
very confusing
This feels like the beginning of a hard time for Israeli Carriers. Its like when Covid happened and the market was flush with cash and businesses were booming. Then more competition opened to take advantage of the gold rush while at the same time the free cash started drying up. Basically a bubble bursting and a correction happening. Now folks are hurting. Eventually we hope that the Israel situation will return to normal and when that happens all the foreign carriers will return + there are 3 more Israeli carriers competing for the same passengers. Race to the bottom when that happens. No?
Also off topic but I am an elal gold anyone know how many diamonds ( that is points for status ) will I get when flying delta?
They need to offer something different. Point to point, ultra luxury, ultra low cost, cargo. Something.