Originally Posted by flymeoutofhere

Agreed! Actually El Al for all their bad points do have an actual business class on their short haul aircraft, well more like US style with a 2-2 configuration with recliner seats.

I understand the point the airlines make about fleet consistency but when you have (in this case for example) run 2x daily flights to TLV for 15 years and they are stable and important feeders for your long-haul and European routes, surely it makes sense to configure a sub-fleet with real business class (also for LH) and win the entire business market, which would happen in a matter of weeks. TK in TLV had 8x flights a day (mostly with long-haul product) and Aeroflot has 5x a day with A330 and B777, a huge part of their success is the product in J. If LX or LH had a strong and consistent J product to TLV I am certain they could operate another 2 or 3 daily flights to feed their long-haul.

In the case of LX for example, a flight departing TLV around 8:30 which arrived to ZRH at 12:00 would be a perfect feed for the West Coast and Asian flights departing ZRH at 13:00-13:30. Now pax wanting those routings must take the 5am departure and wait 4-5 hours in ZRH.

A lot of airlines slightly seem to overlook TLV, and those who don't such as TK and lately in the low-cost area, Wizz and Ryanair, show just how much demand exists, and just keep adding more and more.