Israel Hayom is reporting that Argentine President Javier Milei will visit Israel on June 9th and will announce, alongside Prime Minister Netanyahu, that El Al will operate three weekly nonstop flights between Buenos Aires and Tel Aviv.
El Al’s longest flight right now is between Tel Aviv and Los Angeles, at 7,574 miles. The flight distance to Buenos Aires would surpass that, at 7,604 miles, a new record long route for the airline.
El Al’s Tel Aviv to JFK flight was the world’s longest airline route when it launched in 1961 on a Boeing 707. The Tel Aviv to Los Angeles route was the world’s longest airline route when it launched in 1988. Currently, those honors go to Singapore’s JFK to Singapore route.
Service between South America and Israel has been tried a few times in the past by various airlines, but hasn’t been able to last very long. However, the Dreamliner is designed to operate far-flung routes like this without heavy traffic, so maybe it can work? Warming relations between the country that once hosted Adolf Eichmann should help traffic on the route as well.
We reached out to El Al for confirmation of the report, to which a spokesperson responded that,
“The potential of these flights is being examined.”
In recent years, El Al has withdrawn from Johannesburg and Toronto as it refocused its long-haul flying to the US market. Adding service to Argentina would be a bold move, do you think it will work?
HT: chff
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30 Comments On "Will El Al Announce Nonstop Service On A New Record Long Route?"
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Hopefully Argentine economy improves allowing for more discretionary spending on travel.
If they have extra planes I’d imagine their most profitable option is more USA flights or a Toronto option, not Argentina which would mostly be taken by pack packers not wanting to pay elal prices
Why not start with 1 weekly flight to test demand?
Business passengers dont want to spend a week on the ground.
I hope so. Would be cool for South America !
Dan – what do you mean that the Dreamliner is designed to operate far-flung routes like this without heavy traffic?
Efficient, cost effective.
You do not need to fill a lot of seats filled in order to fly the plane cost-effectively 777 and 747 needed a lot more seats full to make the math work.
They were supposed to do MEL-TLV before 10/7, but now I assume that’s not happening?
That’s what I’m waiting for!
has to do with omani airspace
which el al is not using anymore
For what reason exactly do we need those flights? Is there a real “need”?
Add the planes to nyc so people dont have to be on waitlists forever…
That isn’t long term thinking
I don’t see it as viable , where’s the feeder traffic from ? They can’t fill 3 planes a week so while it’s very patriotic, I don’t see it as viable
Must be more of a “political” move.
Clearly doesn’t seem economical.
Huge Jewish community in Argentina, the largest in South America with 200K+. Latam did try direct EZE-GRU-TLV not so long ago but did not last very long. Hopefully this launches and works for them.
No, it was actually SCN-GRU-TLV and not EZE. Latam tried it at the worst possible time in 2019.
Ah thanks for the correction, that makes sense SCL doesn’t have much of a community on their own and GRU does, but I guess like you said bad timing and it stopped with Covid.
I think a direct flight to Melbourne Australia will bring more profit
There is a healthy travel demand to, and from Israel from South america. Not only from within the 300k-plus Jewish community of Buenos Aires but also from neighboring countries like Uruguay, Chile and Brazil who are considered a short-haul flight of sorts and demand is there too. Much of the reasons for it not happening stem from a political concern both from the Eichman smuggle, and from an unfriendly socialist administration plagueing Argentina for years.
While the economic factor can be a concern, it’s not so simple. Many if not most people work and think in dollars. Time will tell how this will work, but I doubt the backpackers is their bet if at all. At the same time it may make it easier for backpackers to prefer spending on a direct flight, so you never know.
Would really love it if SFO-TLV went back onto the routings map! United is gone and getting to LAX is a pain. Can’t Silicon Valley sustain the traffic?!
I have friends and family in both countries that will absolutely avail themselves of this option. The Eichmann side comment is irrelevant. Yes, he lived not far from where I was celebrating my 1st birthday eons ago.
I’ll add the route will likely open up seats now being used TLV-USA or other transfer routes.
Sometimes airlines receive subsidies from countries/regional govts for launching new routes, could you see this being a possibility by Argentina govt to sweeten the deal for El Al to do launch this?
ElAl doesn’t have enough planes to cover the US-TLV demand, so how will they some how start a new route to south America. But what I think is more logical to guess is that an Argentinian airline will start a route to TLV.
Argentina’s airline “Aerolineas Argentinas” actually has 10 A330s that can do this route, maybe they plan to announce an ARGENTINA-TLV route.
TLV-NRT, when avoiding Russian and Arab air space, ended up being from their longer flights in terms of miles flown.
El Al had direct flights to Sao Paulo for a little while.
I believe there wasn’t enough business travel demand to maintain it
Wouldn’t it help if there’s a stop in Brazil? A few middle eastern airlines do that..
At the beginning of the Covid lockdowns they had rescue flights direct from Lima, Peru – a distance of 7,942 miles.
Also picked up by this:
https://www.lanacion.com.ar/politica/milei-anunciara-en-su-viaje-a-israel-el-vuelo-directo-entre-buenos-aires-y-tel-aviv-nid30052025/
Hey Dan – what would be the best CC miles to accumulate to grab flights once availability opens on this EZE-TLV route?