El Al say that they will fly to Australia

[OZDUCK]

Not a route that would interest me but I am sure others will be interested. Very little detail in the article with not even a destination named but surely Sydney or Melbourne. I would guess at Melbourne. The route depends on the Saudi Arabian authorities giving permission for the flight to use their airspace.

El Al to operate direct flights from Israel to Australia - via Saudi Arabia

Flight from Israel to Australia expected to take 15 hours, and if approved will make El Al the only airline to fly that route.

www.israelnationalnews.com

 

[dajop]

Was discussed pre-pandemic too.

El Al announces direct flights between Tel Aviv and Melbourne

https://www.traveller.com.au/israeli-airline-el-al-to-trial-direct-flights-from-tel-aviv-to-melbourne-h1jzgn This is exciting news for travelers to Israel but from a frequent flyer perspective, it will be interesting to see whether we will be able to redeem Qantas points for this route...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

 

[jb747]

What are their connections like into Europe? I’d rather fly with them than some others I can think of.

 

[RooFlyer]

Not a route that would interest me but I am sure others will be interested. Very little detail in the article with not even a destination named but surely Sydney or Melbourne. I would guess at Melbourne. The route depends on the Saudi Arabian authorities giving permission for the flight to use their airspace.

OMaaT has reported that its now open: Saudi Arabia Opens Airspace To All Israel Flights

@jb747 , El Al European destinations from Flight Connections on-line: (Edit - a bit odd they don't fly to Cairo)

 

[jboy90]

Am keen on getting on these flights. I was hopeful their trail flights to Melbourne in April 2020 would result in a permanent route.

I think the Israeli government was awarding airlines $ if they opened a route to a new city which wasn’t already connected to Israel.

 

[Danger]

If you're against flying through Qatar because of human rights concerns, flying through Saudi is not for you.

 

[andye]

If you're against flying through Qatar because of human rights concerns, flying through Saudi is not for you.

You'd have to have pretty high moral standards to refuse to fly through a country's airspace

 

[Danger]

You'd have to have pretty high moral standards to refuse to fly through a country's airspace

Very true. I read the "El Al to operate direct flights to Australia - via Saudi Arabia" headline as indicating a stop in the country. The article doesn't appear to reflect that assumption.

 

[dajop]

Very true. I read the "El Al to operate direct flights to Australia - via Saudi Arabia" headline as indicating a stop in the country. The article doesn't appear to reflect that assumption.

Why via Saudi Arabia is "special" is that El Al flights not been permitted to use Saudi airspace, in fact IIRC any flights to/from TLV had the same restriction.

 

[Quickstatus]

pretty high moral standards to refuse to fly through a country's airspace

QF passengers never batted a eyelid when QF overflew Iran

 

[Quickstatus]

What are the arrangements if LY has an emergency arrival into Riyadh.

 

[SYD]

What would the TLV transit experience be like?

 

[RooFlyer]

What would the TLV transit experience be like?

I didn't transit, but rather just fly in/.out, but I found it a pretty 'normal' airport. In fact, in my TR I noted how little security was apparent. No doubt around, with lots of eyes, but nothing special either way about TLV.

 

[jb747]

QF passengers never batted a eyelid when QF overflew Iran

Iran was quite an easy place to fly over, and I always found the ATC competent and quite pleasant.

What are the arrangements if LY has an emergency arrival into Riyadh.

I'm sure that will be part of the considerations for operating through their airspace.

I didn't transit, but rather just fly in/.out, but I found it a pretty 'normal' airport. In fact, in my TR I noted how little security was apparent. No doubt around, with lots of eyes, but nothing special either way about TLV.

Ah...real security, instead of the theatre that exists everywhere else.

 

[jase05]

With Oman now also opening their airspace to Israeli airlines I would think there is a very good chance that LY will make the push into Australia

 

[Franky]

Iran was quite an easy place to fly over, and I always found the ATC competent and quite pleasant.

I'm sure that will be part of the considerations for operating through their airspace.

Ah...real security, instead of the theatre that exists everywhere else.

The memory is a bit hazy, but I think it must have been when were involved in Afghanistan, and we were on a QF night flight over India, the Stans, Iran en route to Rome. At the time, we had a squadron of RAAF fighters based in the region (UAE perhaps?). A few hours into the flight I noticed the lights of an aircraft out to our right, which sat there for over an hour. I asked the cabin crew if they knew what it was, but they either couldn't say, or didn't know. I thought at the time it was one of the RAAF jets escorting us . To your knowledge, would that have been the case?

 

[RSVKanga]

As of before the war, June 2024 was slated to be the launch time of ELAL's nonstop TLV-MEL service. Any update on whether they have cancelled/postponed this launch or is it still on track?