UK carrier British Airways resumed Tel Aviv - London Heathrow flights yesterday after suspending services on the route for six months due to the regional geopolitical instability. The airline will operate seven weekly flights on the route, doubling the frequency to 14 weekly flights from April 20.
This is welcome news for travelers after 18 months in which there has been a limited supply of tickets on flights to London as foreign airlines halted services and Israeli carriers struggled to meet demand.
While El Al stepped up its number of flights to London, Israir also stepped into the vacuum as British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, EasyJet and Wizz Air all suspended flights to Ben Gurion airport. Arkia even operated flights to Manchester for three months over the winter but then canceled the route, it is believed because it was not economically worthwhile.
In January, with the resumption of Tel Aviv - London flights by Hungarian low-cost carrier Wizz Air, the situation on the Tel Aviv - London route improved, and in June UK low-cost carrier easyJet will restart Tel Aviv - London flights. Thus from June there will be 20-32 weekly flights operated on the popular Tel Aviv - London route by foreign airlines - British Airways, Wizz Air and easyJet.
Israeli companies are the most expensive
The return of foreign airlines may have helped increase supply, but in April, both on last-minute flights and towards the end of the month, it is still not easy to find a seat in economy classes of El Al and British Airways, the legacy airlines that operate the route.
"Globes" found that for the end of April, business class seats remain at round-trip fares of $2,000 and above on the Tel Aviv - London route. El Al also does not have many tickets left in economy class, especially on flights back to Israel, which forces travelers to choose a premium or business seat in one direction and may increase the price of the ticket by tens of percent.
According to data from Ophir Tours, the highest starting price in economy class in April is offered by El Al, with tickets starting at $702 for Tel Aviv - London return fares. Next in line is Israir, which offers tickets starting at $679, followed by British Airways, cheaper by a small margin with a starting price of $650, and finally Wizzair, which markets round-trip tickets starting at $288.
In June, with the expected return of easyJet, the situation improves slightly. Here too, Israeli companies are at the most expensive end of the list. Israir starts at $689 return, El Al starts at $607, British Airways at $471, easyJet at $385 and Wizz Air at $288.
The reason for the differences between Israeli airlines and the rest is the pricing method used in the industry. When an airline returns to the market, it sells the first seats more chaeply, and can therefore afford to price lower than its competitors who have been on the market for a long time. The first seats sold on each flight are the cheapest offered by an airline, according to the algorithm, and the more passengers purchase tickets, the higher the fare rises accordingly.
For the Israeli airlines that operated stably and consistently throughout the war, consumer confidence is high, and therefore many passengers prefer to pay more, securing their flight even if the security situation worsens.
The British airline still not resuming flights
Before the war broke out, Virgin Atlantic, headed by Israeli CEO Shai Weiss, also operated the Tel Aviv-London route. The airline had planned to resume operations with seven weekly flights last September, after suspending all its flights since October 2023, but has suspended them until at least October 2025.
The airline claims that this is due to challenges arising from the availability of spare parts for the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines, which are adapted to the Boeing 787-9 aircraft used by the company. Accordingly, the company is required to make changes to its flight schedule for 2025.
Before the war broke out, Virgin Atlantic operated 14 weekly flights between Tel Aviv and London Heathrow Airport. According to industry estimates, Virgin Atlantic will announce in the coming weeks whether it will indeed return to Israel as planned in the 2025-2026 winter season.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on April 6, 2025.
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