adambisi

In an article about TK's new BOS-IST service, the reporter mentions:

"El Al Israel Airlines is expected to soon launch direct service to Tel Aviv, and a route to China is in the works."

The latter (PEK via HU) we know is true but is TLV service just a vague rumor made up by Massport, misinformation received by the Globe themselves, or does this one have teeth?

I personally do not buy it unless there's something with B6 in the works and that still may not be enough for this route.

Link to article below:

http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/...5mL/story.html

ELY001

If EL AL is going to start a route to BOS, what a/c type are they going to use? The same gas guzzling outdated 763's they use to YYZ? If so, the economics of that route will likely not work.

HumbleBee

Doesn't make any sense.

LiorM

Why Boston?
Boston is close to EWR or JFK or YYZ.

Chicago is better. Maiami is better . Atlanta is better.

Vegas will be the best. They will do a special gamblers flight

Lior

entropy

Sheldon already has his 74SP for that.

The only way BOS could work is if B6 did the thru flights for them so they could do some connecting traffic. MIA is a much better bet, more O/D and they can reach latin america via AA.

ELY001

For certain ORD and MIA would be the best cities for LY to start services to. Both are AA hubs and as such EL AL could get fed traffic from middle America through ORD and Latin America through MIA (not to mention the large Jewish and Israeli population in the MIA area).

A significant portion of traffic between Latin America and Israel travel through MAD on IB. If EL AL could somehow divert that traffic from Latin America to MIA on AA and then fly these pax from MIA to TLV that would generate substantial revenue for the airline.

I don't think LAS would work. I doubt the loads would justify such as flight and besides, EL AL flies non-stop to LAX which is a short hop away.

For MIA or ORD to work from an economics standpoint, EL AL would have to deploy mid sized fuel efficient a/c (such as the B787 or A330) and not the gas guzzling 767's used on these routes previously.

LiorM

I wrote Las as a joke but with good
marketing it can be a strong line.
TLV can be a HUB for gamblers.
Lior

adambisi

Your argument is weak though you are correct in saying Miami/Chicago is better.

I would have supplemented it with BOS has plenty of convenient 1-stop service through AMS/LHR/CDG/FRA and coming soon IST.

YYZ allows for too much backtracking and there are a LOT of people who do not want to connect at either NYC airport.

Atlanta is not good for LY either. DL couldn't pull it off which means no other airline can.

Also replying to entropy, LY does interline with B6. You can book BOS-JFK-TLV via LY's website. Unfortunately, you are not going to magically fill a plane with connections in BOS from BUF/PIT/RIC (though DCA and FLL could help) and UA/DL will be competitively priced on 1-stop routes.

simba8

Doesnt make any sense..must be ORD or MIA.
Why goto BOS? How much traffic will it be?


YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!
Please take those planes out of YYZ into BOS...get some new ones on route to YYZ.

NYTA

If they could arrange codeshares with Jet Blue, BOS would make a lot of sense as you can connect to just about anywhere in the US from there. I have often tried to do trips with stopovers in BOS from TLV then going on to the west coast and this would allow it to be a one-stopper instead of two. I'd also rather not connect in NY if I don't have to and would even pay a slight premium to connect in BOS to Jet Blue vs. NY on AA or DL.

ELY001

NYTA, I don't think BOS would be a good route for EL AL. For starters BOS is not really a hub airport and therefore LY would not be fed connecting traffic from all over the US as they would at JFK/ORD/ MIA from AA. Also, I doubt that there is enough traffic, particularly C pax, between the 2 cities to justify non-stop services. Besides, even if the above was not the case, what a/c could LY use on the route? The 777 would be too big, leaving it with gas guzzling 763's the operating costs of which would render yields extremely low, and profit nearly non existent.

NYTA

I think you could do a lot of connecting traffic with Jetblue and I do think there is O&D demand - there are so many tech companies/investors in the Boston area doing business in Israel that I'm sure would pay a premium to fly nonstop vs. connecting in Europe and for sure would want to avoid NY. Check out http://www.jetblue.com/wherewejet/ to see the staggering amount of possible connecting points from Boston.

ELY001

NYTA,


Are those connecting points from BOS you highlight non-stop ones or ones with a stop through a B6 hub?

Reason I ask is because B6 offers service to 20 or so destinations from a suburban NYC airport close to my home. However, only 2 of those destinations are non-stop and the rest are connecting through a B6 hub.

If that is the case with Boston, I can't imagine someone eager to make a connection just to get to BOS in order to make yet another connection to TLV when they could just fly non stop to JFK and connect to TLV on LY there.

As far as traffic between BOS and TLV is concerned, you are right there are a lot of business in BOS doing business with companies in Israel. Problem is that these businesses have travel departments and those travel departments likely have contracts with airlines that are in alliances, and they want the alliance miles and perks. This reality laments my previous points about how important it is for LY to get into an alliance.

Consequently, if TLV-BOS non stop will ever become economically feasible for EL AL the following must be in place:

1. EL AL is adequately fed traffic by another airline that it has a relationship with (B6, AA) & can connect pax through to dozens of destinations in the USA non-stop from BOS.

2. EL AL obtain fuel efficient medium size long haul a/c and deploy on this route (B787 or A330)

3. Alliance membership (can be mitigated if #1 is extensive enough)

adambisi

49 Destinations - granted some are 1-2x weekly (GCM,SXM,PLS) and seasonal (PDX, OAK, ACK).

B6 does serve 19 out of the top 25 largest metro areas from BOS: exceptions: ONT (close to LAX), STL, DTW, MSP, SAT, and of course ATL.

Willing to bet over 90% of USA-Israel traffic comes from these destinations!

I do think they would need to get real close to B6 to pull this off.



You do get miles as an AA flier on LY but no status.

I don't think anyone will let LY in an alliance. Unfortunately their route network does not bring much to the table and (twice as unfortunately) there may be some politics involved.

NYTA

I put a link there so you could click on it to see the destinations for yourself, not to make comments that don't make sense about connecting through JFK.