Originally Posted by
ELY001
Bernie,
As far as I am aware, a significant portion, if not outright majority, of traffic through Dubai is connecting east/west traffic. Most people that fly Emirates either connect east/west or go to visit Dubai, or a combination of the two.
DXB is already strong, so are IST and CAI (growing and *A), but I never have flown any of the gulf carriers and DXB only in/out for business.
Originally Posted by
ELY001
Consequently, LY could do the same thing in TLV. LY could offer east/west connections through TLV between destinations such as New York and India, Europe/India/Far East, and even Europe/Australia should EL AL one day fly to the land down under. Obtaining this sort of traffic would both enable EL AL and Ben Gurion airport grow in passenger volume, increase tourism to Israel as a significant portion of this traffic would be curious enough to spend a day or two layover visiting Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and make EL AL attractive to an alliance.
I am sure that there are studies out, but I feel even in the west, percentage wise you have a too great number of pax which you won't get on LY or TLV.
Not with that mixed brand recognition (which people tend to see that different of course). For you it's a very positive and safe brand, others might see hijacked aircrafts, terrorists and armed guards, people arent often that sophisticated in analysing things and they tend to have rather some images from the 70's, bomb attacks in TLV, rockets or blown up PamAm over Lockerbie in their mind, this stuff is still repeated too much on TV. They, deep inside, connect that to LY (even if totally flawed, but it makes little difference, as said, perception..).
I am not touching here the environing countries which should be the natural catchment area for an aspiring and expanding carrier..
So, they have a block of led on their legs..And there are carriers out which are with much less weight on their legs and much greater and equally developed catchment areas, shortly before passing away...
That calls IMO rather for a lean niche player, which is likely very hard work to achieve, if it does not become profitable, then its IMO up to the Israeli people to decide if they want to preserve the purpose of this piece of heritage and identity. If they want to settle the bill, why not, its public transport...but if they don't....
Originally Posted by
ELY001
As far as the A350 is concerned, this a/c would only be good for a TLV-SYD run, but then again so would an A380. If LY ever decides to fly to Australia, this will be an issue, but for now its not.
Look, the catchment area is rather limited, so they have to reach into areas where you have already fierce competition, that comes IMO with a block of led. Be sure that between any spots on the world map, if there is enough demand, there will be direct flights, its much more cost effecient.
If there are today only transfers, then probably the critical mass of PAX for point to point transfers had not been reached (or the metal is not there yet)..
If that is the case, IMO one should be very considerate to enter that arena.