NYTA

I wonder if Wizz will set the schedules for the flights Israelis want - morning departures from TLV and afternoon returns. If not, there's no reason to fly Wizz over anyone else. Still, I wonder how much LCC competition has to happen before BA and LY start reducing their fares - usually it's around $350 R/T for the LCCs and $800+ for BA or LY, which is why I almost never fly BA or LY to London anymore.

TLVtraveler

WIZZ isn't a LCC, it's an ULCC and there's a big difference, it's business model is closer to Ryanair's, whenever a ULCC goes into a market there's a big price reduction which I hope we will see with the TLV-LON line. I wish they will enter a few more routes that have very little competition such as FRA, BRU, FCO, MXP etc.

I was poking around dates in December and managed to find dates for around 520 NIS r/t all included which is around a 100GBP!

flymeoutofhere

In 2018, when the final part of the Open Skies agreement comes into force and any European airline can open a base in Israel, I guess this kind of competition with morning departures from TLV to Europe can, and will, become reality...

joshwex90

My fear is that instead of truly reducing fares, BA and LY will simply drop to LCC level of services (as we are seeing in the US happen), and soon bring up LCC fares to match

Ldnn1

They won't do that because the base is LTN with turnaround in TLV...

LTN-TLV 13:20-20:35
TLV-LTN 21:25-00:50

Tu,Th,Sa,Su

NYTA

B"H

Houminer

Arriving in LTN at 1 AM. Arriving at your hotel at 3 AM.
Maybe for people living in London or really cheap Israelis.

benberg2013

Well, this is who they are targetting. Not-cheap Israelis, or the up-class market would pay more to go with normal Airlines.

Innocent Abroad

At least the outbound is quite convenient (to some....).

NYTA

Agreed - I think this is the latest London-TLV departure from any LCC so I'll probably be on it a lot as I hate the 7am LTN-TLV Easyjet flights. Used to like the 12:30 LGW flight but that's going away apparently.

Ldnn1

I would see it as targetting Londoners more than Israelis, though will obviously be a mix of both.

TLVtraveler

Transavia pulling out of MUC and dropping it as a base, axing TLV-MUC in the process starting 27/10.

Apparently they are unable to sustain the new base in Germany.
Let's hope one of the other LCC picks up TLV-MUC, from what I know this route is very popular with relatively high yields.

travel agent

new flights to Poland:

LOT will introduce seasonal flights between Tel Aviv-Ben Gurion and Gdańsk, Wrocław, Poznań and Lublin. All flights expected to be on the 737-800s.

TLV-GDN/GDN-TLV once weekly (Saturdays)
TLV-WRO/WRO-TLV twice weekly (Tuesdays, Fridays)
POZ-TLV/TLV-POZ once weekly (Wednesdays)
LUZ-TLV/TLV-LUZ twice weekly (Mondays, Thursdays)

The WAW-TLV/TLV-WAW service is to be extended to 13 flights per week.

Innocent Abroad

Quoting myself Today the minister of transportaion did say that Ramon will start operating on Oct. 17. Fingers crossed

sabbasolo

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for direct flights between Australia and Tel Aviv using Boeing’s Dreamliner aircraft as a way to build business relationships between the two countries.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/busi...7a448f1989a836

Of course it isn't ever going to happen with current technologies and airline economics. I recently saw a presentation on possible non-stop charters from Australia to Israel - and in my opinion the economics don't work - economy would cost too much (can't carry a full load), and who would want such a long flight that cost 50% more than a 3 hr stopover in HKG to change planes? No way to charter a business only with lie-flats, and you couldn't fill it anyway on a fixed date charter.

It will be interesting to see how the new QF direct flights from Perth to LHR will work out, in terms of load and price.