Potential Comeback: El Al Looking to Restart India Operations

The flag carrier of Israel, El Al is looking to finally restart operations to India. Previously planned for a late Oct 2023 start but due to conflict in the country, it delayed the resumption to March 2024, and now plans to start it in late October as filed. It is looking to restart services in the winter schedule.

India Schedule Filed by El Al

El Al will be connecting Tel Aviv with New Delhi and Mumbai, 2x and 4x weekly respectively. It will be deploying the Boeing 777-200ER to New Delhi and the 737-8/9 to Mumbai.

Flights to New Delhi will be operated on Sundays and Wednesdays, whereas Mumbai service will be operated on Sundays, Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays. Here is a quick look at the flight timings:

If the filed schedule is implemented, the airline will be deploying its Business and Premium Economy products on the Delhi route. On Mumbai service, it will deploy the Boeing 737 configured with two cabins: Biz and Economy. It has a fleet of six Boeing 777s and 25 B737s.

Operational Roller Coaster Ride

The airline operated to both these cities in the past, serving New Delhi until December 2019 and Mumbai until March 2020. After ceasing most of its operations due to the pandemic and the conflict, the airline sees a steady growth in air travel and has plans to restore its network and announce new destinations in the US. Despite the ongoing conflict, the airline kept flying to destinations such as New York, Los Angeles, Bangkok, Madrid, and Athens to name a few.

Its partner airline, Delta Air Lines, will also resume flights from New York JFK to Tel Aviv starting this week. It is being resumed after a thorough security risk assessment. It will be the sole US carrier to connect JFK with Tel Aviv and will provide customers with almost 13000 seats this month alone.

For now, we will just have to sit and see if El Al resumes its flights this year or delay it even further until March 2025.

Conclusion

Israeli flag carrier El Al Airlines, in its tentative schedule, has expressed the intention to resume flights to India. Because of the conflict, the airline halted operations between both countries. Air India remains the sole carrier connecting Delhi to Tel Aviv with five weekly flights. It will be interesting to see, whether this tentative schedule becomes a reality.

What do you think about the potential comeback of El Al Airlines to the Indian market? Discuss in the comment section.