In the Immortal book of JM Barrie, Peter Pan, the title of title quipped: “As you doubt that you can fly, you stop to always be able to do it.”
We have been at war for 19 months. Sometimes we have the impression that we are in Neverland, our government playing the role of lost boys, incapable or little willing to grow.
Tourism entering Israel has dropped to record stockings, and although many foreign carriers have returned, several have simply rekindled us on the map.
Let’s try to separate the wheat from the ball. Giving credit where credit is due belongs to El Al. When most airlines have stopped flying for Israel, El Al persevered. When other airlines, either from warnings from their own government, lack of insurance, or almost the most of any tourism entering Israel, simply stopped, continued El al.
While airlines and the flying public thought it would be a short -term break, for more than a year, and in many cases even longer, most airlines landing at Ben Guerion airport could be counted on the one hand.
El Al continued to fly, even if the incoming traffic has fallen into number which cannot be seen since the war of Yom Kippur 50 years earlier. The scarcity of tourists has not been used El Al; He simply increased the rates to the maximum, and the customers who had to fly paid. What was once considered a bad investment began to show phenomenal results.
Consumers have complained because El Al has published figures each quarter showing profits increasing, increasing and more. Yes, they would promise to reduce prices to specific destinations, but to many continents, whether North America or Europe, they had the sky for themselves and people paid. Oh yes, people have paid. Air tariffs last winter have reached levels never seen before.
Business people must fly and prices for bonuses and trade classes have completed the chests of any person wise enough to have actions from EL AL. While Israeli taxpayers have continued to deal with all the security costs of Israeli airlines, EL AL concluded an agreement with the government to pay dividends to its shareholders.
It is not an insignificant amount. The Israeli airline has now announced that it could distribute up to 30% of its net profit in 2025 and up to 40% in 2026-2028. The average yield of dividends on the US stock market as a whole is 2.22%, while the average dividend return for shares listed in the S&P service sector is 2.37%.
El Al is facing a new wave of competition
This wave of historical profits continued months after month until many foreign airlines see that there was money to be made and that the small insignificant Israeli consumer could be convinced in the midst of an endless war to travel abroad. The two Arab airlines, Emirates and Etihad, continued to fly, and the Ethiopian air also stolen for most of the war.
It was the European airlines that have decided to test the waters. A pinch of Lufthansa, a little Air France, and the flood doors have opened most of the European airlines. In the United States, where El Al operated with more than 80% of market capacity, United and Delta returned.
In addition, their low apologies that insurance premiums were too high were too high or that their unions were opposed to flying in Israel. However, the Israeli public was slow to kiss them. We have seen how quickly they turned their tail, and endlessly for war, the overwhelming sensation is to stick to an Israeli carrier. This antagonism will decrease when, day after day, these foreign carriers continue to fly.
Note that you will not see, as you have done in the past, advertisements of these companies praising their return. Do not expect to see display panels in Tel Aviv Trumpetting United or British Airways in Israel. They keep a low profile and count on word of mouth and travel professionals to promote their products.
Their Israeli managers are also afraid that their presence will be temporary. The buyer is wary of the feeling, but with the prices of El Al so frustrating, more and more Israelis are ready to put their feet and behind these planes.
After months of meticulous reflection, Arkia, the smallest of Israeli airlines, decided to listen to public executives and technologies who move and charter an plane for New York of El Al. Surprisingly, as a completely economical avion, the vast majority of leaflets were those who were traveling for leisure, not for business. This non-stop option has found enough consumers to get Arkia in spring and summer.
This month, he goes at full speed.
Arkia will go to her wet rental operator of a Iberojet All-Economy A330-900neo to a Gullivair A330-200 on May 14. Gullivair, a Bulgarian company, has a linked platform, although dated, of the commercial class with 19 seats of direct aloses in a 1-2-1 configuration, making this cabin a first for Arkia. The company says that it has experienced a “great success and high demand” with its route launch, with a service now extended until October 23.
Israil, the third Israeli airline, leaves differently. Having received the approval of the FAA, they will exploit their planes, create a marketing company in the United States and plan to start operations in time for Passover and Easter in the spring of 2026.
Although the prices of EL AL this spring and this summer is down 10% compared to a year ago, there are few reasons for them to lower their prices more. Let us deepen the reason for these high prices. This reflected an increase of approximately 10% compared to the previous year. Keep in mind that we have “lost” most of the last three months of 2023 when the massacre of October 7 has taken place.
Of these 21 million passengers from Ben -Gurion, on average, filled 55% of each plane. In simple terms, 45% of these planes in Great Britain, France or New York began their trip abroad. Once the war broke out, these figures have dropped and have not yet recovered or show signs of recovery.
This last Passover has seen a handful of tourists, mainly those who come to visit their family members who live here. Have you noticed that many Christians visited the Holy Land for Easter? It would have been surprising because they did not come. Many groups of tourists also do not plan to come to Israel this summer. Most foreign airlines indicate that the passenger ratio from Israel against foreigners is now at an 80/20 ratio.
The result is that although there is renewed competition in El Al, with so few incoming tourists, most of these foreign carriers are not impatient to start a price war.
Virgin Atlantic officially canceled his route between Heathrow and Tel Aviv.
The carrier launched daily flights to Ben Gourion in September 2019, only to suspend a few months later after the start of the COVVI-19 pandemic. The route returned and went to two daily flights before being suspended in October 2023 following the war between Israel and Hamas.
This had to restart in September of last year, but it did not materialize, and Virgin has now confirmed that the route had been canceled. Their current press release said: “After careful examination, our partners from Virgin Atlantic made the decision difficult to cancel the services between London Heathrow and Tel Aviv.”
They will keep a share of code with El Al on flights to and from London so that we can continue to North America, but they have closed their office. Their Israeli CEO, Shai Weiss, decided that Flying for Seoul, South Korea, offers higher economic yield than flying in Israel. I suppose that its beans have calculated that the risk of North Korea causing conflagration is less than the war in Gaza.
British Airways’s response was to offer two daily flights between London and Tel Aviv.
Finally, the enraged anti-Semitic, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who feeds his hatred towards Israel and all the Jewish people with the quasi-quotation, is both the president of Turkey and the head of the Turkish airlines belonging to the government. At 70, he was content with their flights to Tel Aviv without recovery; He has given the order that their landing slots at Ben Gurion airport are abandoned.
This draconian decision by Turkish Airlines and another company belonging to a government, Pegasus Airlines, to give up their takeoff and landing slots in Israel is a serious climbing in the visceral hatred of Erdogan to everything related to Israeli.
To summarize the tourism industry today, everything you need is faith, confidence and a little elf dust.
Mark Feldman is the CEO of Ziretours Jerusalem and director in Diesenhaus. For questions and comments, send him an email to mark.feldman@ziontours.co.il
