Originally Posted by
Waterhorse
The market will decide, either this will work or it won’t, moaning on an internet forum will make zero impact, only voting with your wallet will. If the new SH offering is so poor then BA will make no money from the route and connections and will pull the service, or they will make money and it will remain and perhaps, if demand dictates it, they will change it back to a LH route. The rest of the routes of that length are also SH, like Amman and Cairo and, before its demise Beirut, so it fits within the model that clearly works for BA.
The demographics are completely different. There is a HUGE expat British community in Israel, many of whom moved to Israel for religious/emotional/educational reasons, who live there with their families and work in the UK. Probably at least 90 commute weekly with BA, and maybe a few more on ELAL. Almost all in Business Class or Premium Economy. In normal times, all 3 cabins are completely full on most days of the week and I class tickets are hard to get hold of sometimes a good few weeks ahead. That's with 2 large planes flying a day (777, 351, or a little smaller 788/789/781). Not comparable in any way with Cairo or Amman.
The competition is also pretty stiff. ELAL fly 2 large planes a day to LHR and 2-3 738s daily to Luton. Even their 738s have a business class seat which may not be lie flat, but is streets ahead of CE on a 321. The large aircraft have a business class seat broadly similar to Club Suite and a better Premium Economy than BA. They also have a (recent) excvellent hookup with Delta for the USA (and fly 4-5 daily direct flights to the USA). It is NOT the hopeless basket case it used to be. Again, in "normal" times, Virgin fill 2 large aircraft daily, again with good offerings in business and premium economy. Both offer good status matches for BA status holders.