As awful as it sounds, it’s better for connecting passengers, both outbound and inbound, so I think that is part of the reasoning behind it.

It will probably surprise you to hear, but, as long as it fits in with the rest of my plans, then I will be bidding for it. BA are having real problems on a daily basis crewing this flight, and I am happy to go to Israel, even in these worrying times, I like the stopover time in LCA, and I want to support the lovely BA staff in TLV, especially the amazing duty managers, ( one in particular,) who I’ve known for years, and who have helped me out on a personal basis a couple of times when I’ve been there on holiday. I do not want BA to drop this flight, and the more crew that refuse to go, the more of a possibility that becomes. Just as an example, a friend of mine was the 3rd IFM asked to operate the flight, one day last week, as the previous 2 refused to go. The flight had to be delayed, (slightly,) as his standby duty did not start until way after the normal check in time.