Going back 2-3 years ago there was no flights from LTN to TLV and then ThomsonFly decided to operate services 4-5 times weekly and they were a great success, originally flying with a 737-800 and this was regularly upgraded to 752's and 767's.
Thomson decided to pull out of all schedule services and dropped the successful route, then in May this year El-Al decided to transfer their operation from STN to LTN and this is flown 6 times weekly with a 762 and 763.
Now LTN will have 12 flights a week to TLV, from the 2nd Nov this year! The easyJet flights will operate Saturday to Thursday.
I hope this will not have an impact on the El-Al service and I am sure the airport will hope this too... They seem to think of the El-Al service as a flagship service of the airport as no other national carriers operate from LTN and is does potentially offer connecting flights to/from Asia and the Far East which the airport has been keen to market!
This does seem to be part of some longer distant route expansion for easyJet to the eastern Mediteranean basin from LTN. Only last week they announced flights from the airport 3x weekly to SSH and 4x PFO. Reading on other websites it seems easyJet are basing 2 A320's at the airport for the Winter 09 schedule (rumour from PPRUNE website), and these are additional airframes from what is already based here. It would appear these new aircraft will be busy plying these new routes as the A320's do seem to operate easyJet's longer routes...
Kiwiandrew From New Zealand, joined Jun 2005, 8435 posts, RR: 14 Reply 7, posted (3 years 10 months 3 weeks 4 hours ago) and read 7193 times:
Quoting Directorguy (Reply 6): Why isn't this service going to be daily? I thought only LY restricted operations on Saturdays.
maybe the airline is being cautious and they dont want to cause offence , or maybe , statistically , fewer people travel to/from TLV on Friday because the pax themselves prefer to keep Shabbat and the airline doesnt want to operate with an uneconomically low load factor on that day so they choose not to operate at all ?
Moderation in all things ... including moderation ;-)
GCT64 From United Kingdom, joined Nov 2007, 1104 posts, RR: 1 Reply 8, posted (3 years 10 months 3 weeks 3 hours ago) and read 7105 times:
Quoting Richardw (Reply 4): Do the new U2 A320s have reclining seats? or will these be former GT A320s?
By the time this service starts. most (or all) of the ex-GT A320 series will have departed from the fleet (although I'm not sure of the exact dates). They are all due to be replaced by new build EZY aircraft. I can't answer the question on seat reclining for new build, as I haven't yet flown on one.
Pe@rson From United Kingdom, joined Jan 2001, 18843 posts, RR: 54 Reply 11, posted (3 years 10 months 3 weeks 1 hour ago) and read 6774 times:
Quoting Richardw (Reply 10): Oh dear, just a little too far without a reclining seat, LTN-TLV.
I can easily live without a reclining seat. In fact, I wouldn't have been bothered about reclining my seat on STN-KUL, 12h 40m, let alone 4h 30m LTN-TLV.
"Everyone writing for the Telegraph knows that the way to grab eyeballs is with Ryanair and/or sex."
Richardw From United Kingdom, joined May 2001, 3709 posts, RR: 0 Reply 12, posted (3 years 10 months 3 weeks 1 hour ago) and read 6730 times:
I can sleep ok non reclined in an older cloth seat FR B738, but not these U2 A319 style non recline seats, which may be similar to ones they may be putting in these new U2 A320s.
Pe@rson From United Kingdom, joined Jan 2001, 18843 posts, RR: 54 Reply 14, posted (3 years 10 months 2 weeks 6 days 22 hours ago) and read 6497 times:
They're actually loaded now. LTN-TLV from £71.99 and TLV-LTN from £30.99. The return is, of course, exceedingly inexpensive, and the difference in fare is no doubt in part attributable to the APD.
Timings:
LTN-TLV: 1130-1835
TLV-LTN: 1925-2305
"Everyone writing for the Telegraph knows that the way to grab eyeballs is with Ryanair and/or sex."
BA319-131 From United Kingdom, joined Jan 2001, 8267 posts, RR: 56 Reply 16, posted (3 years 10 months 2 weeks 6 days 22 hours ago) and read 6405 times:
Quoting Pe@rson (Reply 11): I can easily live without a reclining seat
- So can I on european flights, find it stops me being woken up on finals!
BA319-131 From United Kingdom, joined Jan 2001, 8267 posts, RR: 56 Reply 18, posted (3 years 10 months 2 weeks 6 days 21 hours ago) and read 6286 times:
Quoting Richardw (Reply 17): LTN-TLV is about 5hours 20 mins, so not that short.
- Good point, should still be able to do it - though don't plan to try!
Hovitzer From Israel, joined Jul 2005, 50 posts, RR: 0 Reply 23, posted (3 years 10 months 2 weeks 6 days 10 hours ago) and read 4677 times:
Quoting Ilyag (Reply 22): which terminal will U2 use in TLV? Would it be T3 with all the others, or they would be the first airline to operate from the "LCC" terminal in T1?
U2 Pax chek-in counters are located in T2, and afterwards buses takes them to T3 duty-free and again on buses to the aircraft.
Antonovman From United Kingdom, joined Mar 2001, 719 posts, RR: 0 Reply 24, posted (3 years 10 months 2 weeks 6 days 9 hours ago) and read 4493 times:
I wonder if the same crew do a "there and back"
5 hrs 10 there, 5 hours 10 back, 30 minutes turnaround time, 1 hour before STD report
It must be pushing it a bit
25 Joost: Air Passenger Duty. A special flight tax collected by the British Government, that can be quite high. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Passenger_Duty
26 Pe@rson: Where are you getting that from?! It is 5h 5m block for LTN-TLV, 5h 40m block for TLV-LTN, and 50m turnaround. They should do it on a there-and-back
27 BestWestern: Will this be the only LTN based A320 - if so, then they are building in some mx flexibility into the schedule.
28 BestWestern: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Al States that the el al 762 has 189 seats. Easy have 174 in their A320. Anyone have the time to do a CASM comparison?
30 BestWestern: So, the 767 and A320 have virtually similar seat costs - now whats the CASM difference?
31 APYu: Jet2 and Thomson did it as a there and back so no worries there. Only BA get their cushy nightstop - and lets see if that lasts. For me the downside
32 Cityofathens: APYu, BMI crew also spend the night in TLV, but I see what you are saying; consider that 17 BA crew also spend the night in CAI which is just over 4 h
33 LY7E7: I am not sure easyJet will be a big success in Israel. Israelis like to complain about the relatively high cost of flights from Israel to Europe and e
34 Pe@rson: You make a good point: education is probably needed for countries that have no experience of low-cost airlines and thus might not know the difference
35 Gilesdavies: Is Israel a country that attacts much in the way of tourism? I know Eilat is quite popular, but just curious what kind of mix you could be expecting o
36 Pe@rson: I would guess at mainly Israeli VFR. And it's also bound to have some Israeli and British tourists. What about businesspeople?[Edited 2009-07-09 07:2
37 CityofAthens: If easyJet do their usual advertising for TLV i.e. a simple orange umbrella in the sand next to a beach ball with words such as "Tel Aviv from £xx on
38 Pe@rson: "The majority of Israelis in the UK live in London and in particular the heavily populated Jewish area of Golders Green," says Wikipedia. And this is
39 Richardw: As the crow flies? Heathrow. or cheapest to get to by public Bus/coach ? Luton or easiest car Journey, just up the M1 a bit? Luton
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