El Al Considering Direct Flights To Melbourne

El Al, an Israeli airline, has announced plans to operate scheduled flights between Tel Aviv and Melbourne in the coming months, a route made possible by hopes that the opening of Saudi airspace will result in direct flights from Australia to Israel.

On Monday, El Al CEO Dina Ben-Tal Ganancia spoke at the Google Travel & Tourism Conference in Tel Aviv. El Al is considering direct Melbourne flights, which were first proposed before the pandemic.

The flight would take only 15 hours because it would no longer have to circumnavigate the Arabian Peninsula.

El Al had already been spotted in Australian skies, with three repatriation flights to Melbourne in the early days of the pandemic to assist the country’s Jewish diaspora in returning home. These flights were also used to test the viability of a direct link between the two cities.

El Al’s plans to establish a new route to Melbourne, initially announced in 2019, were delayed by the Covid-19 outbreak.

Regarding air travel, the Middle East’s political landscape has changed dramatically in recent years. A historic agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates in 2020 allowed Israeli carriers to fly to the UAE and overfly its airspace, and a deal announced just a few weeks ago means that Israeli airlines will soon have (mostly) unrestricted access to Saudi Arabian airspace for the first time (once all the necessary paperwork has been filed).

This current arrangement is significant for El Al.

Not being able to access Saudi airspace (save for flights to Bahrain and the UAE) has made life difficult for EL Al’s route planners, resulting in longer flights to some Asian destinations (as EL Al avoided Saudi airspace) and rendering other routes unviable.

However, with Saudi airspace soon to be opened to Israeli carriers, El Al now has new options, and the airline is eager to benefit.

El Al serves several European destinations, most of which are served twice daily, and Ben Gurion Airport has a relatively simple connecting process.

While El Al is not a member of any of the major airline alliances, as a Qantas partner, El Al flights can be booked using Qantas Points; El Al flights booked under a QF codeshare will earn a full serve of Qantas Points and status credits.