LY777
Aug 31, 09, 6:53 am
Copy/paste from airliners.net:
New competitor on the profitable Tel Aviv - Eilat route, the largest airline in Israel, El Al.
The Israeli Minister of Transportation, Israel Catz, accepted the recommendation of the Israeli Civil Aviation Authority, to allow El Al to fly to Eilat from Tel Aviv Ben Gurion airport. Arkia and Israir, the current operators of the route, opposing the decision, saying that it will harm them seriously and will hurt the competition on the International routes out of TLV. Today, 50% of Arkia & Israir profits come from the domastic market.
Eilat is a resort city in the southern tip of Israel, 350km south of Tel Aviv, with 50,000 residents and 10,000 hotel rooms. Eilat airport handles domestic flights only, from HFA, SDV & TLV. The number of passengers on SDV/TLV-ETH route is about 1 million every year, with 20 round trip flights on weekdays and 30 round trip flights on weekend days. Until 1996 Arkia had monopoly on the domestics flights, and when Netanyahu's first government decided to open the route for competition, a new airline, Israir, joined. El Al never flew to ETH, and foreign tourists coming to Eilat on LY flights had to get off the plane at TLV, and to fly on Israir plane that LY wet leased. Only 8000 tourists a year come to Eilat this way.
In the past few years arkia and Israir started to compete El Al on international routes, including profitable lines to Paris, London and New York (TLV-JFK route was operated by Israir with A332). Now, LY claims that the competition sould imply on domestic routes also, therefore it asked to open TLV-ETH line. LY CEO says that LY can fly 4 times a day to Eilat, using Boeing B757-200s and lowering the ticket price up to 30% less then today price.
Flight to Eilat today cost between 99 NIS to 377 NIS (3.8 NIS = $1US, 5.5 NIS = 1 Euro) one way. The price is set according to the load factor on every specific flight, so as low the load factor is - the lower is the price.
If El Al will fly domestic, it will only fly out of TLV since SDV can't handle jets. Now Arkia flies to ETH with B753, EMB195, ATR72 & DHC 7, and Israir with A320 & ATR42. Another thing sould be mentioned: Eilat airport is small and can't handle many more flights then it handles today.
http://www.themarker.com/tmc/article...?log=tag&ElementId=ir20090824_4546
New competitor on the profitable Tel Aviv - Eilat route, the largest airline in Israel, El Al.
The Israeli Minister of Transportation, Israel Catz, accepted the recommendation of the Israeli Civil Aviation Authority, to allow El Al to fly to Eilat from Tel Aviv Ben Gurion airport. Arkia and Israir, the current operators of the route, opposing the decision, saying that it will harm them seriously and will hurt the competition on the International routes out of TLV. Today, 50% of Arkia & Israir profits come from the domastic market.
Eilat is a resort city in the southern tip of Israel, 350km south of Tel Aviv, with 50,000 residents and 10,000 hotel rooms. Eilat airport handles domestic flights only, from HFA, SDV & TLV. The number of passengers on SDV/TLV-ETH route is about 1 million every year, with 20 round trip flights on weekdays and 30 round trip flights on weekend days. Until 1996 Arkia had monopoly on the domestics flights, and when Netanyahu's first government decided to open the route for competition, a new airline, Israir, joined. El Al never flew to ETH, and foreign tourists coming to Eilat on LY flights had to get off the plane at TLV, and to fly on Israir plane that LY wet leased. Only 8000 tourists a year come to Eilat this way.
In the past few years arkia and Israir started to compete El Al on international routes, including profitable lines to Paris, London and New York (TLV-JFK route was operated by Israir with A332). Now, LY claims that the competition sould imply on domestic routes also, therefore it asked to open TLV-ETH line. LY CEO says that LY can fly 4 times a day to Eilat, using Boeing B757-200s and lowering the ticket price up to 30% less then today price.
Flight to Eilat today cost between 99 NIS to 377 NIS (3.8 NIS = $1US, 5.5 NIS = 1 Euro) one way. The price is set according to the load factor on every specific flight, so as low the load factor is - the lower is the price.
If El Al will fly domestic, it will only fly out of TLV since SDV can't handle jets. Now Arkia flies to ETH with B753, EMB195, ATR72 & DHC 7, and Israir with A320 & ATR42. Another thing sould be mentioned: Eilat airport is small and can't handle many more flights then it handles today.
http://www.themarker.com/tmc/article...?log=tag&ElementId=ir20090824_4546