Ahead of the High Holidays next week, the list of foreign airlines canceling flights to Israel is lengthening as missiles fired by Hezbollah are reaching further and further south. Lufthansa Group (including Austrian Airlines, Swiss, Brussels Airlines and Eurowings) has canceled all flights for the next three weeks, while Wizz Air, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, LOT, and AZAL (Azerbaijan Airlines) have temporarily canceled flights. Other airlines including easyJet, Ryanair, Delta, United, American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Air India and Turkish Airlines have announced long-term cancelations.
Expensive alternative of Israeli airlines
The uncertainty prevailing over flights to and from Israel operated by foreign airlines means that travelers prefer booking with Israeli airlines. Cancelations by Israeli carriers have been few and far between and usually where leased aircraft are involved. For the most part, Israeli airlines have access to convenient insurance coverage and have managed to keep their schedules ticking over.
But the preference for Israeli airlines is expensive. Israeli travel agency Ophir Tours deputy chairman Yoni Waxman says, "For demand destinations, and mainly through Israeli airlines, there are only a few seats left, and only in business class, and this pushes up fares."
On El Al, for example, fares for the holidays are sky high. The reason for this is the ticket pricing method used in the industry, in which those who book early pay a lower price, while as time passes and less seats are available, fares climb. The same method operates for business class.
El Al explains that since the outbreak of the war, the pricing system has been restrained, including lowering the maximum fare in economy class for each flight. However, economy class is almost fully booked for the upcoming holidays, with the few available seats priced very high. In premium and business classes, El Al has not lowered maximum fares.
El Al admits that it is simply unable to meet demand. According to the Israel Airports Authority, in August El Al had a 43% market share of passengers passing through Ben Gurion airport. The highest fares are to destinations for which El Al currently has a virtual monopoly including New York and Bangkok.
Only premium class seats remaining,
"Globes" sought to buy tickets for the Sukkot holiday in the second half of October. The cheapest return fare to New York was $7,000 with prices rising to $9,000. No economy class seats are available. There are economy class return fares available to Bangkok but for the princely sum of $3,700.
Fares on flights from Tel Aviv to Europe are also high. "Globes" found tickets to London in economy class but there were only return tickets in premium class making the return fare $1,700. Paris was somewhat cheaper with return tickets available for $900. In general outbound flights are cheaper with return fares much more expensive.
Waxman says that despite the situation there are cheaper alternatives. He says, "If you want to cut costs there are connection flights to be found with longer stopovers, or you can try and fly out with one airline and return with another. Air France offers a comfortable stopover to New York and flyDubai provides cheaper connection flights to Bangkok. Another possibility is flying to Bangkok more cheaply with Ethiopian Airlines with a long stopover in Addis Ababa."
Ofakim Travel & Tours CEO Revital Ben-Natan tells "Globes" that fares are up to three times higher than last year before the war.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on September 25, 2024.
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