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El Al to fly direct between Tel Aviv and Melbourne

written by Jake Nelson | March 15, 2023

Israeli flag carrier El Al will launch a new direct service from Tel Aviv to Melbourne next year.

The Tel Aviv-Melbourne route, using Boeing 787 Dreamliners, will be the first non-stop air link between Israel and Australia, and was originally floated for 2020 before being pushed back due to COVID-19.

Representatives of El Al and the Victorian Government signed a Letter of Intent in Tel Aviv to begin three services per week for a total of 44,000 seats per year by June 2024, establishing Melbourne as a regional hub for El Al in Australia and New Zealand.

“We look forward to launching our first ever non-stop flights to Melbourne as we position Victoria as Israel’s gateway to Australia,” said El Al Israel Airlines CEO Dina Ben Tal Ganancia.

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Israel is a significant trading partner for Victoria, including in international education – in 2019, 45 per cent of Israeli students studying in Australia were enrolled at Victorian institutions. Victoria’s Minister for Industry and Innovation, Ben Carroll, says the new route will add $48 million annually to the state’s economy and create 155 new jobs in aviation and tourism.

“We’re partnering with El Al, Israel’s national airline, to back direct flights between Melbourne and Tel Aviv to strengthen business connections and create jobs locally,” said Carroll.

“More international flights to such an important trading partner will power our economy and boost our status as a key destination for tourism, trade and investment.”

El Al expanded its reach in Australia in 2017 with the commencement of a code-sharing and frequent flyer partnership with Qantas.

The deal placed Qantas’ QF code on El Al-operated flights from Hong Kong, Bangkok and Johannesburg to Tel Aviv, and El Al’s LY code on Qantas-operated services from Hong Kong to Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, and from Sydney to Bangkok and Johannesburg.

In 2019, Yoav Weiss, then El Al’s regional director, told Executive Traveller of plans to conduct commercial and operational trials between Tel Aviv and Melbourne.

“The Australian market is a very good market for Israel, there is a very big Jewish and Israeli community in both Sydney and Melbourne,” he said.

“We have a lot of business coming from Australia, flying with Qantas via Bangkok or Hong Kong, and also via Johannesburg. But it wasn’t until we received our brand-new Boeing 787 that we could consider a non-stop operation to make it all the way ‘down under’. This idea was going around for a while, and we decided to give it a try.”

The airline ran three test flights on the route in 2020.

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