Update: It came perhaps a year too late, but Arkia’s inaugural flight from Tel Aviv to JFK arrived on time today and the return flight departs shortly. They will face stiff competition, as United will return 2 daily flights between Newark and Tel Aviv in March and Delta will resume daily service between JFK and Tel Aviv in April. For now though, it’s just El Al and Arkia operating the route.
Arkia is currently selling flights through June 30th, and says a decision to extend the route will depend on demand.
Arkia flew with multiple Hebrew speaking flight attendants on the flight, in addition to the Portuguese cabin crew. There was no working WiFi available on the flight, but the ability to have a blocked adjacent seat for just $100 is truly an incredible value.
Were you on the flight? Share your thoughts in the comments!
Israeli carrier Arkia is now selling nonstop flights between JFK and Tel Aviv between February 8th-May 8th. This will help relieve some of the availability issues that have plagued the route since October 7th.
Flights are bookable directly from Arkia, and don’t appear to be available from online travel agencies.
Arkia doesn’t have any widebody planes or crew, so they will wet-lease an Iberojet A330-900neo to operate the service. Iberojet is a Spanish-Portuguese charter carrier.
European airlines are slowly returning to Israel, though many are still hesitant to return, with unions refusing to operate in a war zone. If there is a flare-up, this service would likely be paused as it will be operated by a European crew, versus El Al flights that are operated by an Israeli crew.
Only 1 plane is being leased, so if there are any weather or mechanical issues, delays and cancelations will have ripple effects for days after the flight.
Ironically, the A330-900neo is the same plane type that Arkia originally agreed to purchase from Airbus to operate service from JFK to Tel Aviv. Arkia invited me to Toulouse in January 2019 as Airbus wined and dined them as they picked out interior options for the plane, though sadly, those planes didn’t wind up at Arkia. But 6 years later, Arkia will be selling flights on the same plane and route as originally intended.
Iberojet’s A330-900neo is an all-economy plane with a whopping 388 seats in a 2-4-2 configuration (tapering to 2-3-2 in the rear) and a 30-31″ seat pitch.
Currently, flights in February cost $599 each way, March flights cost $799-$999 each way, April flights cost $899-$1,399 each way, and May flights cost $799-$999 each way. Unlike most international flights, there doesn’t appear to be any surcharge for booking one-way.
It appears that in many of the middle rows of 4, Arkia will only sell the 2 aisle seats, and will offer the 2 aisle seats in those rows at just a $100 upcharge, with a guaranteed empty adjacent seat. That’s a great deal!
Other seat assignments will cost $10-$35, though you can also wait until check-in for a free seat assignment. Row 13 offers extra legroom for a $150 upcharge.
The plane will depart from JFK’s Terminal 4, which is where El Al also operates from, and where a plethora of lounges can be found.
Flights include 1 checked bag, though it can only weigh up to 44 pounds. An additional bag will cost $80 online or $110 at the airport. A small backpack is included, but a larger carry-on bag up to 17 pounds will cost $15 online or $20 at the airport.
2 meals are included and you can select Glatt Kosher Mehadrin meals.
Flights begin on February 8th, and will operate 3 days per week, with flights departing from Tel Aviv on Saturday evenings, Mondays, and Wednesdays, and return flights from JFK on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays.
There are conflicting reports on the flight times.
According to the Arkia site, the Tel Aviv to JFK flight on Saturday departs at 11:30pm and arrives at 5:50am the next day. On Monday and Wednesday it will depart at 8:30am and arrive at 2:50pm the same day.
The JFK to Tel Aviv return flight departs at 12:30pm on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday, and arrives into Tel Aviv at 6:30am the next day.
However, news reports say that the Tel Aviv to JFK flight on Saturday departs at 11:30pm and arrives at 5:50am the next day. On Monday and Wednesday it will depart at noon and arrive at 6:20pm the same day.
The JFK to Tel Aviv return flight departs at 3pm on Sunday and Tuesday, and arrives into Tel Aviv at 9am the next day. The JFK to Tel Aviv return flight departs at 4pm on Thursday, and arrives into Tel Aviv at 10am the next day.
Either way, the plane will be sitting on the ground at JFK for an incredible 21 hours on at least 2 days per week, which doesn’t strike me as the best utilization ratio for the plane.
Can Arkia compete with El Al on this route? What will happen if US carriers return to the market in the meantime? Only time will tell.
Will you book any flights with Arkia between JFK and Tel Aviv?
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123 Comments On "[Flights Now Operational] Arkia Now Selling Nonstop Flights Between JFK And Tel Aviv!"
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Enjoy flying Spirit Airlines to Israel
Way worse than spirit
Well delta are selling seats from start of April… So we’ll see what happens
Don’t think so. Hope it will lower or at least hold the El Al prices and encourage some of the old carriers to jump on-board, pun intended.
This seems to be the same techair flights
https://www.techair.co.il/
Correct, but now they’re actually for sale.
Not being a guinea pig for this. Booked on El Al for May
Do they have an english website?
click on the tiny Israeli flag on the upper left – I was able to change it to English
Arkia is the only Israeli airline that sadly flies on Shabbat.
Plus the service is atrocious.
If you read the article, this is a wet lease. The crew are from Iberojet.
Arkia are selling these flights.
Arkia is the only Israeli airline that sadly flies on Shabbat.
The crews will not be Arkia, but Iberoworld
But Arkia is still making money from their Shabbos work
So dont fly with them, no body is making you
Israir and AirHaifa also sadly fly on Shabbos
Which scheduled flight do they have on shabbos?
Israir and air hifa also fly on shabbos.
Only Elal doesn’t.
Which israir flight is on shabbos?
Are you writing from knowledge?
ElAL flies cargo and repositioning flights on shabbos.
not true
I thought so to.
But I checked their schedule, there are no Air Haifa flights scheduled for Shabbos.
Is it true that they fly on Shabbos?
The airline flies on Shabbos, but this route will not operate on Shabbos.
And what if “this” route doesn’t fly on Shabbos?!
If this company flies on Shabbos its huge desecration
El Al flies cargo and repositioning flights on Saturdays too. What’s your point?
source?
ElAl flies cargo flights and does all thier maintenance on shabbat, they won’t to hire mechanics that refuse to work on shabbat.
wrong
Whose slots did they get?
Do they offer business class
“Iberojet’s A330-900neo is an all-economy plane with a whopping 388 seats in a 2-4-2 configuration (tapering to 2-3-2 in the rear) and a 30-31″ seat pitch.”
their asking for an identity card for emergency contact I keep entering and they keep saying its invalid
its very confusing website, if you don’t change the website to English AND USA, it will be asking for Todat zehut as ID, once changed you will be able to enter your passport number
enter 100000009
call them at 6468143001. They booked it for me.
I think the number you provided is wrong . Can you please double check? Thanks
I looked at Elal and at arkia for 3 tickets for Pesach, and Arkia is way more expensive. It looks loike compettion is only good for the long run, and not for the short run.
“It appears that in many of the middle rows of 4, Arkia will only sell the 2 aisle seats, and will offer the 2 aisle seats in those rows at just a $100 upcharge, with a guaranteed empty adjacent seat. That’s a great deal!”
Why does that made sense? $200 is way less than they can get for filling up those two seats.
They must not expect to sell all 388 seats, so this is better than getting nothing.
Even now?
“The JFK to Tel Aviv return flight departs at 12:30pm on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday, and arrives into Tel Aviv at 6:30am the next day.”
I think you meant to say the “return flight departs at 12:30AM” instead of PM
No.
Are you sure? That would be one heck of a long flight.
Uh. Those are both local times.
Ah return flight = JFK -> TLV? I’m used to the return flight being TLV -> JFK
Anyway to buy insurance?
Charters and their aircraft are inherently less safe than Scheduled airlines…..
Arkia was supposed to buy this specific tail number? or just this specific body type?
Nice to have competition finally… but 1200 for a round trip to Israel still feels so expensive
It is much more expensive $2100 for a 2 way flight for Pesach.
I flew them from Milan. It got me there but very no frills. My flight had a delay, and my daughter found that all the prior flights had a 3 hours delay. Arkia did not provide this information. There was no one was at the gate to ask.
I booked on Priceline since the website was hard to use. Make sure you have an actual reservation. The flight to TLV was booked by another party which did not work. The flight going back to Milan was charged to Arkia and was valid.
Mostly joking here but if one can fly charters out of teterboro, someone should start a one stop service on a 757 to tlv
i keep getting a payment eror when trying to pay
Unfortunately an Israeli Airline that is Mechalel Shabbos Befarhesia!
BTW the airline claims that will have a least some of their Israeli crew on board.
Just important to point out that if for any reason they have a delay on the Thursday flight, they unfortunately have no obligation to postpone the flight until after Shabbos, They can instead just land on Shabbos R”L. and they unfortunately have a very bad record when it comes to Delays and changing schedule..
I don’t think you know what your talking about,
There’s a law in Israel similar to the EU261 in Europe that says if there’s a delay and you don’t want to fly because the flight is going to land on shabbos you don’t have to fly on it and the airline is responsible to fly you after shabbos.
Customer: I love flying Spirit, but I wish I could take them for a 12-hour, international flight. Also, it’s a shame the stewardesses aren’t ruder.
Travel agent: Boy, do I have news for you!
Flights are bookable directly from Arkia, and “don’t appear to be available from online travel agencies.”
10/10
Time for ELAL to pull their socks up,
as a high tier member I find it extremely diffcult to enjoy the dull menu of destinations and connection options.
I fully expect them to offer me solutions by selling me ticket at least to all or most major international
Destinations.
This is something that separates a national carrier from any low cost airline
But in this specific term they have way to go and meanwhile they are just a upgraded low cost style
As I wrote to them myself they should of and still should use the non everlasting leverage they have in this situation to reshape their service and products
no.1 by expanding alliances and partnerships to maximze connectivity and destinations!!!
Making a plan of future expansion,
how about EL AL terminal?
For example Canada was left with zero direct flights and hardly indirect flights all this time they could of made good use of this!!!but they did nothing!!!
And had nothing to offer, the only connection they offered was on delta via jfk was also canceled.
EL AL did not offer any connection from European hubs they fly to l, and even if I wanted to make it on my own the timetables mostly mismatched.
it seems they are all excited counting the cash and all the focus is on lame duck destinations with zero connectivity options and competing over there with loads of low cost national and intl carriers which to their luck are not flying all yet, but what about the second the other airlines especially lufthansa group come back? they will now find themselves figuring out how to survive competition with low costs like “ARKIA”. now not only on the low cost destinations but also at JFK. Good luck.
Fly Airlines that keep Shabbos not ones that are michalel Shabbos bifarhesya
LY operates cargo and repositioning flights on Saturday, and their fully owned subsidiary Sundor operates charters on Saturday using LY’s certificate…
You just dont know what your talking about. And you keep talking, without a clue/ and its very not proper, and very not true
Did you ever stay in the waldorf on shabbos? They also make money on shabbos and wpek on shabbos
There is a saying in Hebrew:
“ארקיע ולא תגיאה”
Perhaps we’d take your Hebrew sayings more seriously if you could spell תגיע.
*תגיע*
what the best place to credit these miles to?
I don’t think there’s a worse airline when it comes to customer service. Unless you haven’t had any experience with flying them (or trying to fly them) @dan do you not have an opinion on how they run their operation?
I haven’t flown on Arkia, but feel free to post your experience.
I flew them. They made me miss spirit.
Please note, hey have strict weight , and any overage is $10 a lb. checked their site, a 20 kg suitcase is max. leave all else at home not worth extra cost. safe travel!
20 KG is about 50pounds. thats standard for a checked bag
No, it’s about 44 pounds.
They allow 50 pounds
why not just book stop overs they are way cheaper and sometimes nicer emirates is very cheap now
Good luck,very good
@Dan, these flights now seem to available with online travel agencies,
I booked last night via chase portal for 41,000 points.
Has anyone used them from JFK to Israel?
Just got a message from Chase travel that Arkia moved back my flight from Feb. to Feb. 6!!!! really now??????
From when to when?
Feb. 8 to Feb. 6 from TLV to JFK. but I’m all confused because arkia is still showing the flight at Feb. 8 and when I called chase they’re not really sure whats going on….
Keep us posed, booked arkia too
This has been a terrible experience so far, and the plane hasn’t even taken off. Booked through Chase Travel, but can’t purchase seat assignments.
Called Arkia, and after waiting forever listening to easily the most annoying hold music in history, got someone terribly rude who informed me she couldn’t do anything because it was booked with an agent before I could even give her the confirmation number to look up.
We have no idea which terminal to go to, whether Arkia even has a presence at JFK or if it’s through Iberojet, and I can’t register online with their website. I don’t have an Israeli ID, using 000000000 or 100000009 doesn’t work.
Deeply frustrated. Flight is 2/9 and we don’t even know where to go to check-in at this point.
Forgot to mention she hung up immediately after saying that. LOL.
keep us posted!! pls
You sound very nurvis
But nothing you wrote has what to do with if the flight is good or not
@Dan anyway for non-Israeli’s to open an account with Arkia, they seem to require Israeli ID?
same ques!
I entered 100000009 and it worked
Not working!!!! @Dan any inside info about this issue?
my husband flew today from tlv to jfk with Arkia on the first flight. they took off on time and he was happy with his seating arrangement despite being very nervous beforehand because there was no way to select a seat and no getting thru to an agent. at checkin at the airport they offered him the seat next to him for $100 and he happily took it. I wonder if it would have stayed empty had he not paid for it because supposedly the flight was sold out. when checking flight status it shows now they”ll be landing way earlier then expected. lets see how it goes…
pls. keep us posted!!
BTW what was the luggage allowance at check in?
50 lb
Is this confirmed?
How strict were they about luggage?
How did your husband say the flight was?
Arkia first flight just landed. All was smooth and was on time.
Flight just landed. All was smooth and on time.
thx for updating!!!
my husband was very happy with his experience on this inaugural flight
appreciate that you updated, flying them in a few days iyh
Did you book directly on their website? Getting an error when entering credit card info
same, so I called & they booked for me
I called them & they booked easily
Whats the number?
Hi,
I actually flew on this טיסת הבכורה Feb 8 with Arkia. Other than the meal issue the flight was phenomenal . I can anytime compare this economy to any other airline. The staff were very friendly and when it came to landing none of them acted like a pest.
Me too flew on that flight, will they compensate for not serving strict kosher meals ordered?
Whats their cancelation policy? It seems very complicated on their website?
14 days before with no fee
The return flight just took off about 1 hour late. https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/AIZ992
I am happy to see all the comments about shabbos here. Israeli Airlines read them and they need to know that we do care about shabbos , and we are pained to see the rampant shabbos desecration in the holy land, including at TLV airport and every type of public transportation, the list goes on. They have the ability to close on yom Kippur, and they all do. It’s our job to tell them that shabbos is even more important than yom Kippur!
50lb weight limit.
$20 for a carry on with wheels.
Lots of empty seats!
No Wifi even for purchase.
Clean new plane.
Let me add one point. The American ppl do not calc. about Shabbos but the same as a lot of American ppl do care about smart phones but when they arriving to Israel they look like the Balei Tshova that don’t know how to daven so they in Shul but still in the beginning, The American that are using an israeli airlines that is not Shomer Shabbos they are exactly the same. The only different the Bal Tsuva knows he is in the beginning, He will get to know all of the rules but the American don’t understand that in some stuff they are only in the beginning. So as respect to Shabbos even it doesn’t bother you because… you should not use it.
what?????
It’s fine to request that an Israeli airline does not fly on Shabbos, but don’t complain if the price ends up being higher than foreign airlines. The price has to be higher if an airline is not able to do business for 1/7 of the week. Think twice before taking your business to Turkish or other airlines to save a few bucks.
Just curious if you ever stayed in a non religious hotel in Isrsel thats doesn’t close for shabbos!
??
Arkia is the only one who fly’s it’s own metal on shabos, by doing that he is mechalel shabos publicly as you can see a jewish airplane with hebrew writing on it flying in many
international airlines on shabos.
any way to global entry number to reservation?
Had a great flight with them bh,
(Even the supper was yum!)
Totally recommend