AA drops MIA-TLV
Jan 6, 2023, 4:57 pm
#1
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AA drops MIA-TLV
https://thepointsguy.com/news/americ...iami-tel-aviv/
Well that didn't last long. DL and UA are increasing TLV service, and AA drops this popular route? Aircraft/pilot shortage?
I took this last June when it was a 772 (return was JFK) before it went daily in October with a 788. This blows; being in ATL, I'd much rather go back this spring through MIA than deal with B6 to JFK or two stops on AA ATL-xxx-JFK. They also think it's feasible to go ATL-LGA and somehow get across Queens to JFK. Hard NOPE.
Well that didn't last long. DL and UA are increasing TLV service, and AA drops this popular route? Aircraft/pilot shortage?
I took this last June when it was a 772 (return was JFK) before it went daily in October with a 788. This blows; being in ATL, I'd much rather go back this spring through MIA than deal with B6 to JFK or two stops on AA ATL-xxx-JFK. They also think it's feasible to go ATL-LGA and somehow get across Queens to JFK. Hard NOPE.
Jan 6, 2023, 7:23 pm
#4
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Wow! It didn’t last longer enough! I knows they flew Miami to TLV by last year. They went to Israel for 12 days. The flight is not full. Yield is not good enough. Clearly, El Al was too much competition. The flights are always full everyday! Lot of Jewish population are going to Israel. They better orders 787-10 or 777-9X. Still have more demands!
Jan 6, 2023, 7:44 pm
#5
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There are a few factors at play here.
DL is about to launch ATL-TLV on 3/26. Probably not a coincidence that MIA-TLV is ending 3/24.
The sheer length of this route means you need to have fairly robust yields to justify the aircraft utilization. Direct competition from LY on MIA-TLV doesn't help in this regard.
China is also opening up again finally, so there are new opportunities for the wide-bodies that otherwise would serve this route.
Still, it's surprising to see a route cut only a couple months after increasing from 3x or 4x/week to daily service.
DL is about to launch ATL-TLV on 3/26. Probably not a coincidence that MIA-TLV is ending 3/24.
The sheer length of this route means you need to have fairly robust yields to justify the aircraft utilization. Direct competition from LY on MIA-TLV doesn't help in this regard.
China is also opening up again finally, so there are new opportunities for the wide-bodies that otherwise would serve this route.
Still, it's surprising to see a route cut only a couple months after increasing from 3x or 4x/week to daily service.
Jan 6, 2023, 10:56 pm
#8
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I think Asia opening up is a factor: this summer AA is flying 4x daily to Japan, whereas last summer it was less than daily. PKX and SEA-PVG also take a couple of planes away. AA probably don't have enough frames to fully fly the schedule (and are 788 deliveries still delayed?)
Jan 7, 2023, 1:10 am
#9
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Seems like that's been the case for the longest time. I still remember pre-merger AA only offering NRT/PVG/PEK and then finally adding HKG/ICN down the road while DL/UA flew to way more Asian destinations.
Jan 7, 2023, 5:01 am
#10
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It is curious how DL can manage JFK, BOS, ATL service to TLV, UA offers 2x daily from EWR, plus IAD, ORD, SFO, while AA can't handle anything but JFK with feeder traffic from B6. Many of those routes also face head to head LY competition and many of them have added capacity recently. Meanwhile AA abandons MIA and never launched the previously announced DFW-TLV route despite a huge subsidy from the Israeli government.
Jan 7, 2023, 7:04 am
#11
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I wonder if its partially a function of available widebodies? MIA-TLV definitely requires two aircraft. AA has its smallest widebody (a 788) on this route.
Jan 7, 2023, 8:54 am
#13
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Oh man, I did that on my very first trip to Israel back when I was a poor, clueless college student. ORD-LGA and then took some sort of shuttle bus to JFK to catch my flight on LY. It actually worked fine (I think I had around a 6-hour layover), but I'd never want to do that again.
Jan 7, 2023, 8:57 am
#14
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You would think connecting traffic to Latin America would be significant. If Israelis get visa-free travel to the US (been a sensitive political issue but I would expect it in the next couple years), then that certainly would help.
Jan 7, 2023, 9:03 am
#15
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But what sort of demand is there for travel between Israel and Latin America? There's not really a significant bilateral business relationship, and tourist demand is going to be focused on cheap fares (think Israeli backpackers on their post-military tiyulim).