flymeoutofhere

According to the latest IAA stats, Star Alliance carriers account for around 19.5% of all capacity at TLV all of which flows via T3.
El Al accounts for 23.7% but that includes UP flights which depart from T1, so actual flow through T3 is probably similar to Star Alliance.

With El Al having an unfavorable local reputation especially with premium passengers, and the contract Dan lounge not up to the standards, is there an opportunity for Star Alliance to strengthen their brand in Israel by opening a lounge at TLV? Would add more pressure on LY and probably an added incentive for many more premium pax to opt for a Star airline (El Al's lounge is superior to Dan).

Also, with Air India now flying East from TLV (and long-term rumors about Singapore and ANA starting service) and Aegean and LOT among others having significant traffic from regional airports, could Star promote TLV as a transit airport?

oliver2002

Transit to where? TLV is a destination.

The Dan lounge serves all airlines that are not affiliated to El Al. They probably paid a pretty penny for the licence to operate a lounge at T3, so probably insist to keep their monopoly

ajeleonard

There is an actual Star hub at IST, no reason to route transit passengers through a spoke like TLV, particularly with the security hassles

As you say, El Al's reputation is quite weak, so the need to "build the brand" isn't really there. People fly the Star airline anyway

PVDtoDEL

Interestingly, the only 1 stop options between DEL-RZE, for example, are via MUC, TLV, and EWR (lol).

Not that there's a huge DEL-RZE market that needs to be served, but there might be some onesie twosie transits like this which make sense.

vbroucek

Which is not surprising considering the size and (un)importance of RZE...

Plus, I could not find direct flight between TLV and RZE, nor between EWR and RZE...

Are you sure you meant RZE (Rzeszow, Poland)?

garykung

IMHO - none of what OP said actually supports a *A lounge at TLV.

While the criteria of having *A lounge is unknown, AFAICT - it is not based on traffic alone. So high traffic does not equate a lounge is warranted.

Also - while TLV is a major city for Israel, the reality remains unchanged that doing business in Israel can be a troubling matter that could need unintended consequences. So in a business perspective, it may be better to invest somewhere else until the issues could be improved (which is never).

PVDtoDEL

Both flown once per week - RZE-EWR on Sundays and RZE-TLV on Mondays. Clearly a huge market

vbroucek

Oh, obviously, I did not do my search completely... Still sounds crazy...