El Al and Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL; DNT) expanded their code-sharing agreement of October 2000. The agreement allows El Al passengers from Israel to continue to follow-on destinations in the US on Delta flights, using a single ticket.
Delta suspended its route to Israel last year, shortly after renewing flights following a five-year hiatus. The measure was due to the security situation. Delta had announced it would resume flights in March 2002, but then retracted.
Prior to the expansion, the code-sharing agreement covered only three follow-on destinations in the US: Atlanta, Cincinnati and San Francisco. New destinations now include Washington, Dallas, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Seattle and Los Angeles.
El Al's management announced today that it expects a 7% increase in passenger traffic to the US. El Al president and CEO David Hermesh said, "The code-sharing agreement with Delta is part of the airline's strategic fabric. El Al has set itself the goal of improving and streamlining its customer services."
Hermesh continued, "It is a great opportunity for El Al to cooperate with Delta Air Lines. This cooperation is a strategic move for El Al, allowing our passengers a wider network, access to additional destinations in the US and a tremendous upgrade to the overall service. Our new timetable, combined with Delta's cooperation, ensures much easier and transparent access for our passengers to these additional destinations within the US. This is another step forward which aims to improve our product to the United States."
"We have been very pleased with our relationship with El Al since last March when we began codeshare service between the United States and Israel," said Paul Matsen, Delta's senior vice president - International & Alliances. "This new codeshare service is just another step as Delta continues to pursue new opportunities around the world as part of our goal to become the best airline in the world in the eyes of our customers."
El Al today estimated it controlled 63% of the Israel-US airline passenger market. In 2001, 600,000 of the 950,000 passengers on direct flights from Israel to the US flew El Al.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on 20 February 2002