[BackOfThePlane]

I hope I can add my own input without anyone thinking that I am trying to correct them or making a political comment!

If you take BA & Virgin as examples, both would love to fly to Tel Aviv. It’s not a case of right or wrong, it’s simply responding to where clients want to fly. That being the case, they have 2 options.

1. Set a start date to resume flights, take the money from client bookings and then, if that resumption date proves to be overly optimistic, refund them.

2. Wait, do nothing and then, if flights do resume, face missing out to competitors who have gone for option 1.

Working in travel, and being on Virgin’s trade email list, I have had countless notifications from them advising that they have pushed back their resumption date so resumption dates show that, yes, airlines do definitely want to fly to Tel Aviv. The date itself is flexible.

As far as other airlines from around the world are concerned, I haven’t got a clue.

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JonathanCohen09

[cwoodward]

Yes it seems very much to be a moving feast but a lot of majors are defiantly back flying the route.

According to the Jerusalem Post yesterday 14 foreign airlines are already scheduled to fly passenger services to Israel this week including- (this information checks out with flightradair24 information)

Lufthansa – Air France -Aegean Airlines-Ethiopian-Etihad-Hainan Airlines-Austrian Airlines-Swiss-Fly Dubai- Emirates-LOT-Air Europa and some more than once.

Interesting Turkish has a 777 due to depart for Istanbul at 9.55 – could be freight I cannot tell from flightradar24.

[SimonS1]

Indeed a look at today’s departure board only shows FlyDubai, Ethiopian, Aegean, Austrian, Swiss, Ryanair, Vistajet, Lufthansa, LOT, Air Seychelles…..

Doesn’t sound like a place that is closed down.

Flights from UK airlines seem to be missing but El Al is still operating from London.

[ASK1945]

“Flights from UK airlines seem to be missing but El Al is still operating from London.”

Indeed Simon: I have just checked BA and they are not offering flights before April 1st. The problem is the UK government advice against travel to the region, which means most (if not all) travel insurance is null and void (except the cancellation cover).

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JonathanCohen09, cwoodward

[BackOfThePlane]

On the subject of BA & Tel Aviv, I quote directly from Simon Calder’s X / Twitter feed from 45 mins ago. (Simon Calder is a respected UK travel journalist in case you don’t know who he is).

“British Airways will resume flights to Tel Aviv from London Heathrow on 1 April. But the previous double-daily long-haul configured Boeing 787 will be replaced by a four-times a week short-haul Airbus A320, and stop in Larnaca along the way to change crew”.

As per my previous post, it will be interesting to see if this date sticks and, if it does, how Virgin Atlantic respond…..especially as the latter only have wide-bodied aircraft in their fleet.

[AMcWhirter]

Thanks for this BackOfThePlane.

Having a crew change in Larnaca suggests it’s to avoid a night stop in TLV.

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cwoodward

[ASK1945]

BOTP – both your post is very slightly inaccurate. My own booked flights to/from TLV at the end of May have been changed by BA today – they are now on different dates (and times) but use an Airbus A321(NEO). I have been upgraded from PE to (European)Club as the A321 doesn’t have PE.

Alex: you may well be correct about why there is a stop at Larnaca (outward only) but it seems a bit perverse. The crew stay at the Intercontinetal in TLV, which remains open (and I am told, relatively unaffected). The stop adds inconvenience to passengers and airport costs to BA. Maybe BA knows something that I don’t 😯.

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JonathanCohen09, AMcWhirter

[ASK1945]

Just a few minutes ago confirmed by a long explanatory email from BA. These are snippets:

” ……………… We wanted to let you know that these flights will now operate on a short-haul aircraft. This is a commercial decision [my emphasis] and aligns these flights with other similar-length flights we operate. We’ll keep this decision under review”.

and

“We will temporarily need to make a short operational stop in Larnaca, Cyprus (LCA) on the London Heathrow (LHR) to Tel Aviv (TLV) flight, to allow us to change crew. This will add 45 minutes to your scheduled flight duration, but there will be no requirement for you to disembark the aircraft. This currently applies to flights taken up to and including 31 May 2024, and will be kept under review. We’re sorry for any inconvenience caused”.

So, those Forum members who have complained about the (similar) flights to Amman and cairo, it looks like you will not get the change you wanted, in the near future. For those of us wedded to BA, whilst BA have now downgraded their TLV flights, El Al have been busily upgrading theirs.

[JonathanCohen09]

BA’s approach to this seems very strange, I say this because Easyjet and Wizzair operate A320 and A321 respectively direct, non stop, flights from Luton to TLV, turn around and come back so my question is why can BA not do the same, even if their turn around time is a bit longer, the crew should still be within the allowable hours to make the return trip.

Can fellow posters shed any light on why BA cannot operate in the same way as the LCC’s, I would be very interested to know if there is.

[Harbord1]

Probably a combination of historic working practices, unions blocking and crews – understandably – not wanting to night stop in TLV. The only good thing to say about this new plan is that if the aircraft goes tech in TLV, the low cost carriers will quickly run out of crew hours whereas the BA crew may be able to wait for the aircraft to be fixed.

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Malcolm, AMcWhirter, Johnnyg, ASK1945, JonathanCohen09

[cybertravller]

I recall BA crews who were flying to Kingston, Jamaica, during the troubles when the Americans were trying to apprehend Dudas Coke had to night stop in Montego Bay and then run the Kingston leg as a shuttle, so for TLV, Larnaca does make sense.

Looking at the timings, it is a mystery why this is a night stop.

[ASK1945]

“Looking at the timings, it is a mystery why this is a night stop”

Not really cybertraveller. Until recently BA had two flights a day to/from TLV. The timings have varied over the years but I usually took the one going out at around 0800 and only very occasionally the one going out from LHR around late afternoon/early evening (I can’t recall the timings).

The 0800 one left TLV around 1700 and arrived back to LHR around 2000, so if one crew looked after both outward and inward flights that would be 12 hours, not counting any delays.

My assumption was that the 0800 crew stayed overnight and returned the following morning in the flight that had arrived from LHR a few hours earlier. When they went down to one flight a day, presumably the crew who arrived at 1430 the previous day took the following day’s return.

I sometimes saw BA flight crew at the David InterContinental in TLV.

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JonathanCohen09, cybertravller, cwoodward

[LetsFlyNow]

Meanwhile the Lufthansa group is restoring frequencies from the end of March. 3x daily from FRA, 2x daily from MUC, 2x weekly from DUS, 3x daily from VIE and 2x daily from ZRH all with the A321neo/A320 with a turnaround time of about 50Mins. Then again, these are all flights of about 4hrs or less so very doable.

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JonathanCohen09

[BackOfThePlane]

Bucking the trend slightly, probably because they are hampered by only having wide bodied aircraft, Virgin have pushed back resumption of flights until at least April.

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JonathanCohen09

[ASK1945]

I heard today another possible reason why BA are stopping at Larnaca on their outward flights to TLV, for a crew “overnight”. It is about insurance for the crew taking the plane onwards to TLV. When the crew arrive at TLV they will stay on-board and so are not officially entering Israel.

Currently, UK government advice is against travel to the region and so insurance companies are declining to cover stays in Israel (or the other affected areas).

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fatbear, cybertravller, JonathanCohen09

[Author]

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