UK
British Airways resume flights to Israel
Reduced service to Tel Aviv set for takeoff on April Fools’ Day
February 8, 2024 14:26
1 min read
Reduced service to Tel Aviv set for takeoff on April Fools’ Day
February 8, 2024 14:26British Airways will restart flights to Tel Aviv with a reduced service from 1 April 2024. The carrier will operate a single short-haul flight four days a week between London Heathrow and Ben Gurion, Tel Aviv.
The service will stop en route to Israel at Larnaca in Cyprus for a crew change, but passengers will remain onboard during the 45-minute layover. The return flight to London will operate nonstop.
This pit stop in Cyprus will provide BA with an alternative if landing in Tel Aviv is deemed too risky, according to The Independent.
A BA spokesperson said: “We’ve taken the commercial decision to move Tel Aviv to our short-haul network when we restart our flights on 1 April. This aligns these flights with other similar length flights we operate, and we’ll keep this decision under review.”
Unlike the business class beds offered in their previous long-haul offer, BA's short-haul flight will have the same configuration as European flights, with the premium option comprising of the middle seat being folded away.
The airline suspended flights to Israel on October 11 after turning back one of its planes because rockets were flying around the skies of Tel Aviv. Before Hamas’s brutal attack on Israel on October 7, the national carrier offered two long-haul Boeing 787s every day between the UK and Israel.
Israel’s national airline, El Al, has continued to operate its London-Tel Aviv route mostly uninterrupted, with its long-haul configured Boeing 787 from Heathrow and a low-cost Boeing 737 from Luton.
Wizz Air has also restarted flights to Ben Gurion from Luton, as well as links to Israel from Budapest, Larnaca, Milan, Rome, Sofia and Warsaw.
EasyJet has not yet resumed its flights to Israel but tickets from Gatwick to Tel Aviv are on sale from October 2024.