Originally Posted by Courmisch

Finnair only has so many planes. As already noted, leisure flights tend to use extra capacity at night. To fly a convenient schedule to/from TLV, Finnair would need one extra plane: like to/from MAD, the plane would fly to TLV during the evening, stay there for the night, and fly back the next morning.

Even if DOH, AUH and DXB are not options due to geopolitics, there are already connections possibilities through IST and SVO. Both are better located. I am not sure how many Israeli residents care about which country the plane will go over when doing the purchase decision.

FWIW, SIN-HEL flies over Afghanistan and Pakistan air spaces...