The FAA downgraded Israel 4 years ago to a category 2 safety status over concerns about Israel’s oversight of non-commercial flights.
Because of that Israeli airlines like El Al, Israir, and Arkia have not been able to add any flights between the US and Israel or form new partnerships with US airlines.
Today Israel has been upgraded back to category 1 status.Ā It’s hard to say what this will mean, but we may see El Al trying out service again between cities like Chicago, Miami, or S. Fransisco and Tel Aviv, though it may come at the expense of the Los Angeles-Tel Aviv flights.Ā This may also mean a return of Israir to the US market.
United has long been rumored to wanting to add service between Chicago or S. Fransisco and Tel Aviv or even a 3rd daily flight between Newark and Tel Aviv once they get enough 787 deliveries.Ā It would be very interesting to see what will happen to airfares if United and El Al try to compete head to head in a secondary market.
It will be great to see any capacity being added between the US and Israel though.Ā It’s definitely needed and will hopefully normalize some of the exorbitant nonstop airfares, which rank among the highest international fares on a price per mile basis.
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10 Comments On "Israel Restored To Category 1 Safety Rating; More Competition Ahead?"
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Does this have anything to do with the Category 1 hurricane that just blew by my house?
I have a good feeling american is going to start from jfk and code share with elal on that flight as they already partners
@dave:
American won’t be flying to TLV anytime soon.
AA will prob just do a code share
How soon can we hope for better prices??? we need to be in Israel (party of 5) Jan 1. Prices are sky high and i missed the el al summer glitch š
same as fetch any one know if we will see price reliefe?
Dan, your comment greatly intrigues me re: AA. Could you elaborate?
@Fetch:
Doubtful that anything will happen that soon.
@HansGolden:
TWA left lots of pension liabilities in TLV. My understanding is that the Israelis who lost out in that bankruptcy have threatened to seize AA aircraft to cover those liabilities should they land in TLV. Of course AA didn’t take over TWA’s liabilities, they only took on selected assets and their mileage program, but that doesn’t mean that would stop them.
Which is why AA has gone the codeshare route with El Al instead of having their own service on a route that’s been called by CO/UA as their most profitable systemwide. Wit Israel going up to category 1 I’d expect the AA/LY codesharing to expand greatly.
This is great news overall, but might mean LY will cut their TLV-LAX service, no?
why would it affect tlv-lax?