This is pretty exciting. While there’s no firm schedule yet, EL AL has revealed plans to launch regularly scheduled nonstop flights to Australia. Hopefully this comes to fruition.
In this post:
EL AL plans Tel Aviv to Melbourne flight
EL AL has announced plans to launch nonstop flights between Tel Aviv, Israel (TLV), and Melbourne, Australia (MEL) by June 2024. A letter of intent has been signed between the state government and the airline for this service to launch, and the plan is for the flights to operate three times per week.
In the announcement about the new route, it’s argued that this will add 44,000 seats to Melbourne each year, deliver a $48 million annual boost to the state’s economy, and create 155 jobs in the aviation and tourism sector. I imagine EL AL would also get some significant incentives to operate this service, perhaps both from Israel and from the local government in Australia.
The 8,535-mile flight will be one of the longest flights in the world, and will likely be blocked at over 15 hours eastbound and over 17 hours westbound. Fortunately this flight is much more feasible than in the past, thanks to Saudi Arabia and Oman both opening their airspace to Israeli airlines, meaning major detours are no longer required in order to operate routes like this.
It goes without saying that this route would greatly cut travel time between Israel and the South Pacific. While it’s unlikely that EL AL would pick up much sixth freedom traffic (since the carrier’s route network isn’t nearly as robust as that of the Gulf carriers), the Israel to Australia market isn’t insignificant, and should be able to sustain at least three weekly flights.
EL AL would of course use its Boeing 787 Dreamliners for this route. EL AL’s Boeing 787-9s feature a total of 282 seats.
This includes 32 fully flat business class seats with direct aisle access (I reviewed this product between Newark and Tel Aviv)…
28 premium economy seats, in a 2-3-2 configuration…
And 222 economy seats, in a 3-3-3 configuration.
Hopefully this nonstop route ends up launching
In early 2020, EL AL was actually supposed to launch a trial route between Tel Aviv and Melbourne. In late 2019, the airline had announced plans to launch three roundtrip flights between the two cities in April and May of 2020. The flights were supposed to be spaced three weeks apart, and the planes would sit on the ground for one day, so that the same crew could operate the flights in both directions.
As you may have guessed, that trial never ended up launching, since coronavirus shut down the world at that point. I have to wonder exactly what purpose the trial route would have even served, since three one-off flights hardly gives you a sense of what demand is like in a given market (there’s much better publicly available data for route planning).
Admittedly EL AL is now even better positioned to launch this flight, since the airline can operate a more direct route than it could have in 2020, thanks to relations between Israel and some Gulf countries improving.
Bottom line
EL AL intends to launch regularly scheduled flights between Tel Aviv and Melbourne by June 2024. This would be the only link between Israel and the South Pacific, so it would be pretty exciting to see this come to fruition.
EL AL was going to operate this route on a trial basis in 2020, but it never ended up happening. Hopefully the airline has better luck this time around.
What do you make of EL AL’s plans to fly to Australia?
Looking for this flight more than ten years.
Firstly do you even know where Israel is .
Second
Why don’t you take a flight and see for yourself that I’n Israel Jews and Arabs live Side by side
I guess El Al has plans for friendly diversion airports along the route should the need for such a diversion arises.
Kenny Rozenberg is playing airline magnate while thousands of elderly residents in his U.S. Nursing Homes are suffering from neglectful and abusive care. Many elderly nursing home patients in his facilities perished during the Covid-19 epidemic and are still dying due to poor infection control. He used the money he made off the backs of these elders to buy himself an airline. Bob Dylan said, "Steal a little, and they throw you in jail, steal...
Kenny Rozenberg is playing airline magnate while thousands of elderly residents in his U.S. Nursing Homes are suffering from neglectful and abusive care. Many elderly nursing home patients in his facilities perished during the Covid-19 epidemic and are still dying due to poor infection control. He used the money he made off the backs of these elders to buy himself an airline. Bob Dylan said, "Steal a little, and they throw you in jail, steal a lot, and they make you a king." DON'T FLY EL AL. When they approved him, the Israeli Knesset was well aware of Rozenberg's horrible nursing home record. Money talks.
Please Google my Friends name. His name is Mordechai Vanunu. you can also Google my name.
It would be nice to fly into TLV from CDG CMN MAD AMS BRU etc on El Al, spend a week enjoying this wonderful, open and liberated country and go on the nonstop to Australia. and repeat it on the way back.
Certainly in Business Class
Yeah ... nah - sorry Robert, but you apparently don't visit OMAAT enough to guage the mood of posters.
Or in your words, "this isn't the right place ..." yada yada yada. Maybe it should be added instead to the AA story of a day or two ago where passenger A tried to pull a DYKWIA? stunt to have another (somewhat prominent) passenger removed from the flight? Perhaps, you missed that story?
Really, racism and...
Yeah ... nah - sorry Robert, but you apparently don't visit OMAAT enough to guage the mood of posters.
Or in your words, "this isn't the right place ..." yada yada yada. Maybe it should be added instead to the AA story of a day or two ago where passenger A tried to pull a DYKWIA? stunt to have another (somewhat prominent) passenger removed from the flight? Perhaps, you missed that story?
Really, racism and racist attitudes along with the diminishing of human rights by individual governments and people .. should NOT be swept under the carpet because someone sees such instances as "unpalatable" or "inappropriate". It is exactly that type of thinking that ensures that issues of racial division continue to fester.
@kimshep
Yeah, nah sorry 'mate'. Not all of us aspire to be SJWs. But knock yourself out. I mean that literally.
Nothing to do with being a SJW. Fighting racism, homophobia, etc, doesn't make you a SJW, it makes you a good person.
@Lucky Ben do you really want OMAAT to turn into a political forum. This is NOT the avenue to have that discussion. You have a great travel blog and lets keep it just that.
Ben is gay. As am I. Our very existence has and remains political. Just like that of Palestinians. You might be so privileged that you can stay apolitical, because it doesn't effect you but for many of us it isn't a choice. What I do choose to do though is show solidarity to others that may be oppressed in this world, because that is good and right. The world has seen many horrors throughout history,...
Ben is gay. As am I. Our very existence has and remains political. Just like that of Palestinians. You might be so privileged that you can stay apolitical, because it doesn't effect you but for many of us it isn't a choice. What I do choose to do though is show solidarity to others that may be oppressed in this world, because that is good and right. The world has seen many horrors throughout history, and I'm glad not everyone just looked the other way while those horrors played out, and that they stood up for others.
I doubt there is any industry that is more regulated than Nursing Homes in the USA and especially in New York State. I have zero interest in any Nursing Home and neither I nor family ever held any interest.
It is sad that things seem to happen to older people, both my parents perished when elderly and might have lived longer with Nurses on duty 24/7, an MD there daily and all services managed.
I doubt there is any industry that is more regulated than Nursing Homes in the USA and especially in New York State. I have zero interest in any Nursing Home and neither I nor family ever held any interest.
It is sad that things seem to happen to older people, both my parents perished when elderly and might have lived longer with Nurses on duty 24/7, an MD there daily and all services managed.
I realize that when someone is wealthy it is easy to say things like this, that does not make the statements true. Despite the song, steal while running a Nursing Home and you will likely end up in jail. This is not like a shooting or murder where time is often not served.
Is the post writer part of the Israeli government to know what the Knesset knew or is this an indirect attack on Israel, surprisingly to appear on OMAAT?
Haters will remain haters. No point of trying to argue logically with them. They don't use human logic...
The same way Hitler did what he did and no one batted an eyelash, these Arab terrorists can kill as many innocent women and children as they want and then they all celebrate and the media doesn't make a boo, and then when Israel spends millions of dollars and thousands and thousands of hours and puts...
Haters will remain haters. No point of trying to argue logically with them. They don't use human logic...
The same way Hitler did what he did and no one batted an eyelash, these Arab terrorists can kill as many innocent women and children as they want and then they all celebrate and the media doesn't make a boo, and then when Israel spends millions of dollars and thousands and thousands of hours and puts themselves all in great danger to avoid touching any "innocent" citizens and still get censored etc because they mistakenly harmed or killed a human shield etc.....
ITS NOT BUILT ON LOGIC! It is a sad reality and we need to just pray...
Israel doesn't use human logic, that's for sure. Israel kills thousands of innocents intentionally and isn't held accountable for it at all.
To: vlcnc
This is a flight site - to discuss news about air flights, airplanes, airports, and anything that has to do with air travel. This Is NOT a political forum for spewing belligerent hatred toward the Democratic Nation-State of Israel. The only country in the entire world meant for the Jewish People. Your propaganda is full of vile hatred and outright lies about this Country.
Please keep your disgusting politics off from...
To: vlcnc
This is a flight site - to discuss news about air flights, airplanes, airports, and anything that has to do with air travel. This Is NOT a political forum for spewing belligerent hatred toward the Democratic Nation-State of Israel. The only country in the entire world meant for the Jewish People. Your propaganda is full of vile hatred and outright lies about this Country.
Please keep your disgusting politics off from this site and every site. Your statements are full of antisemitic lies and tropes. ALL of them can easily be disproved.
TO OMAAT = you should NOT allow this type of racist antisemitic vulgar posts onto your site. I am shocked that you allow such posts to go onto your site. It must never be allowed and these posts need to be deleted. OMAAT is NOT a political site and you should NOT allow it to become one.
If you read the news you would see it's barely a democratic state at the moment. I'm sorry you find caring for the suffering of others and their dispossession so "disgusting", you must have a very cold heart. I will reply to just say nothing I've said is anti-semetic, but what is anti-semitic is equating criticism of Israel with Jews as you are doing. This is even defined in the examples of the IHRA definition...
If you read the news you would see it's barely a democratic state at the moment. I'm sorry you find caring for the suffering of others and their dispossession so "disgusting", you must have a very cold heart. I will reply to just say nothing I've said is anti-semetic, but what is anti-semitic is equating criticism of Israel with Jews as you are doing. This is even defined in the examples of the IHRA definition which is the most common definition and examples in mainstream use at the moment. All of you are saying you can refute my statement yet conveniently are not doing so, one can posit those refutations actually don't exist - you're getting aggro because this has been exposed. Flights made by national airlines are inherently political, it's why the blockade with apartheid South Africa existed and worked which is the original example I used.
They did fly to Austarlia during COVID19 crises to get Israelis back home
If I could join in with an airline-specific comment? :)
The route previously taken by LY involved travelling down the Red Sea coast between Saudi Arabia and Africa. For places like India, Thailand and Japan, the diversion certainly did add at least a couple of hours but it looks like the impact on flights to MEL of a more direct routeing via Saudi and Omani airspace would be negligible by comparison?
Is this really the forum to air political views? Why not go and troll some Twitter accounts instead?
Was this rumored a year or two ago? I feel like it was. Or maybe it was TK flying IST-Australia.
vlcnc,
What a ridiculous, naive and stupid comment, the only racist is you.. grow up and do some reading to educate yourself before you cast lies!
I think the problem here for you Fred is exactly that I am extremely educated on the topic, but of course you know better than Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and B'Tselem (Isralie Human Rights charity)?? Just because you don't like hearing the truth, doesn't makie "ridiculous, naive and stupid" nor does it become lies because you don't like hearing it.
MEL is the largest Jewish community in Australia by far. While many will use the direct flights it will be at the loss of existing airlines thus the employment opportunities won't be new just rearranged.
23 years after the end of apartheid in South Africa during which South African Airways was rightly sanctioned by many countries from using their airspace for its racist policies, I see we're now allowing another apartheid country Israel to roam free and do whatever it wants without any restrictions for their own racist policies. We're truly regressing in this world...
OMAAT is not a political site yet some people try to spew their lies here.
Get the facts; Israel is not apartheid. Simply googling the facts will elicit that those using the term are either purposely lying or really fools that have been manipulated.
Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, B'TSelem (an Isreali human rights organisation) are all wrong then? They are internationally renowned human rights orgs and have explicitly stated Isreal is an apartheid state - but sure claim "they're lies". Googling will bring it up as exactly as fact lol
And of course Isreal supporters always want to talk about being non-political when it suits them even though everything Isreal does is deliberately political
The three organizations you mention have a history of distorting facts to their benefit. Citing an Israeli organization does not add any benefit, in a free Country (Israel) you will always have dissent. They have great financial support from foreigners to sow havoc.
There was a recent article where anti Israel activists admitted using the ugly term apartheid for its effect even while admitting it was not true. Try googling again.
Arab citizens...
The three organizations you mention have a history of distorting facts to their benefit. Citing an Israeli organization does not add any benefit, in a free Country (Israel) you will always have dissent. They have great financial support from foreigners to sow havoc.
There was a recent article where anti Israel activists admitted using the ugly term apartheid for its effect even while admitting it was not true. Try googling again.
Arab citizens can live anyplace in Israel and can travel with the same rights as Jews. You must be confusing Gaza which is not part of Israel, loves to play with bombs and kept sealed in by Egypt, lol.
This site OMAAT is supposed to be non political, I can respect that as long as you keep your comments off politics. You cant have it both ways.
Israel is a political entity, so I will comment on its politics because everything it does is political expression and show of power. I wasn't appealing to be non-political here, you were! Also this is also about decency - during apartheid in South Africa, people across the world took a stand because great wrong was happening in this world in front of our eyes, a wrong I might add that was supported by Israel itself!...
Israel is a political entity, so I will comment on its politics because everything it does is political expression and show of power. I wasn't appealing to be non-political here, you were! Also this is also about decency - during apartheid in South Africa, people across the world took a stand because great wrong was happening in this world in front of our eyes, a wrong I might add that was supported by Israel itself! There is a great wrong happening in front of our eyes right now in Israel, and it is sad that many think we should now avert our eyes to it.
It's very convenient to start saying fairly liberal, risk-averse and hardly radical orgs like ones I listed as being suddenly biased when it comes to Israel just because you support it, but of course there is no criticism of that country that you would agree to no matter how fair.
You mention Arab citizens of Israel and that they can "live anyplace in Israel" - that isn't true actually where they can live is heavily restricted, and there are indeed places they are not allowed to live. Further the "nation state law" the previous Israeli government passed, makes non-Jewish citizens of Israel second-class citizens with less rights than their Jewish counterparts so no even they are not equal as citizens of Israel as you seek to imply.
Lastly you mention Gaza which is officially part of the Palestinian Territories. The reason we say Israel practices apartheid is because Israel is effectively in control of those territories while those people not having any rights, legal redress or self-determination. Gaza is basically the world's biggest open-air prison as Israel controls everyone and everything that can go in and out of it. You're comment that Palestinians "loves to play with bombs" is also frankly racist and really shows up the type of person you are "Moe".
Mr. vlcnc
I am trying to stay in accordance with OMAAT rules of conduct.
Quite simply, I can start to refute all your statements one by one. It would be a lengthy response and not germane to the goals of OMAAT. Rather than drag it out I will simply state that I hope, one day you get the true information. Let it suffice to state that you are twisting words and facts to...
Mr. vlcnc
I am trying to stay in accordance with OMAAT rules of conduct.
Quite simply, I can start to refute all your statements one by one. It would be a lengthy response and not germane to the goals of OMAAT. Rather than drag it out I will simply state that I hope, one day you get the true information. Let it suffice to state that you are twisting words and facts to suit your pithy, untrue conclusions.
I hope we can all agree to pray for the family that recently buried two sons, age 4 and 6 after being murdered in a ramming attack. Their Dad is now out of the Hospital and in rehab.
Clearly, I do not like anybody that plays with bombs.
Clearly you do like people playing with bombs given you support Israel, you just like them to murder many more Palestinian children rather than Israeli ones and worse with the might of an advanced military power armed up to the nines by western countries. It's very clear you only think some lives matter more than others. You aren't refuting anything I've said, because all of it is true and you can't.
And this is the truth! In Israel, Arabs can buy houses and work anywhere. Arabs and Jews live and work together everywhere. Moreover, there is an affirmative action law in favor of Arabs in the workplace, under which there are Arabs in many companies far more than their relative number in society. They can buy and travel anywhere, and the safest and best place for Arabs to live in the Middle East is in Israel!...
And this is the truth! In Israel, Arabs can buy houses and work anywhere. Arabs and Jews live and work together everywhere. Moreover, there is an affirmative action law in favor of Arabs in the workplace, under which there are Arabs in many companies far more than their relative number in society. They can buy and travel anywhere, and the safest and best place for Arabs to live in the Middle East is in Israel! In the rest of the surrounding Muslim countries there is rampant crime and the government there kills and massacres their citizens. The only ones who harm the innocent are the Arabs in Israel (not all, but unfortunately enough) who murder unarmed women and children in the name of the Islamic faith. The Israeli army, on the other hand, is very careful when it fights against armed terrorists, it fights very carefully and tries as much as possible to avoid harming innocents. Missiles sent indiscriminately into cities with unarmed civilians knowingly murdering women and children
And one more thing, the Nationality Law of the State of Israel does not discriminate against any non-Jewish citizen, it is only a statement and what it says is only that Israel is a country with a Jewish identity that was built by Jews and has Jewish symbols such as Jewish holidays and all, but the law itself says that the rights of citizens are all equal to Jews and Arabs the same ! And in Israel the Arabic language also has a status and it must be present in every government document and every public company must provide service in the Arabic language. The Muslim holidays also have a legal status in Israel and they are celebrated by the Arab citizens in Israel and they receive a holiday and recognition of this according to law. Israel is a wonderful country for every person to live in!
"Israel is not apartheid"
Even some Israeli newspapers are worried Israel is becoming an apartheid state.
"Arab citizens can live anyplace in Israel and can travel with the same rights as Jews"
Israelis are starting to build Jewish-only settlement within the state of Israel itself.
"Considering Elal has hundreds of Moslem workers on their team, I would not try such BS with mentioning Apartheid lol."
In South Africa many Black workers were hired buy airlines,...
"Israel is not apartheid"
Even some Israeli newspapers are worried Israel is becoming an apartheid state.
"Arab citizens can live anyplace in Israel and can travel with the same rights as Jews"
Israelis are starting to build Jewish-only settlement within the state of Israel itself.
"Considering Elal has hundreds of Moslem workers on their team, I would not try such BS with mentioning Apartheid lol."
In South Africa many Black workers were hired buy airlines, hotels, etc. During the height of apartheid so please don't mention any of your BS lol
Considering Elal has hundreds of Moslem workers on their team, I would not try such BS with mentioning Apartheid lol.
So even putting the Palestinian Territories aside, Israel literally passed a "nation state law" that classifies non-Jewish Isreali citizens as second class citizens with less rights. So yeah try again ;)
Israeli-Auatralian here and I fully support this message. Apartheid, wrong in SA, wrong in Israel/Palestine. Basic human solidarity is needed.
@intlsubband Thank you. Solidarity!
@vlcnc. Why stop at Israel's El Al?
a.) Ban SriLankan for Tamil discrimination
b.) Ban Air India and Vistara for Dalit discrimination
c.) Ban Myanmar International Airways for Bengali cleansing
d.) Ban QANTAS for aboriginal discrimination
e.) Ban Vietnam Airlines for Cham discrimination
f.) Ban JAL and ANA for Ainu discrimination
g.) Ban Solomon Airlines for Guale discrimination
h.) Ban AirCalin for Kanak occupation
i.) Ban EgyptAir...
@vlcnc. Why stop at Israel's El Al?
a.) Ban SriLankan for Tamil discrimination
b.) Ban Air India and Vistara for Dalit discrimination
c.) Ban Myanmar International Airways for Bengali cleansing
d.) Ban QANTAS for aboriginal discrimination
e.) Ban Vietnam Airlines for Cham discrimination
f.) Ban JAL and ANA for Ainu discrimination
g.) Ban Solomon Airlines for Guale discrimination
h.) Ban AirCalin for Kanak occupation
i.) Ban EgyptAir for Coptic and Nubian discrimination
j.) Ban Philippine Airlines for Moro discrimination
k.) Ban Garuda for warfare against Papuans
l.) Ban airBaltic for discrimination against Russians
m.) Ban Iberia for discrimination against Basques
n.) Ban Wizz Air for Roma discrimination
o.) Ban Air Serbia for Bosnian discrimination
p.) Ban Saudia for black African discrimination
q.) Ban Turkish Airlines for Kurdish discrimination
r.) Ban Ethiopian Airlines for Tigray warfare
s.) Ban Air France for Corsican repression
t.) Ban Air China for Uyghur genocide
u.) Ban Royal Air Maroc for Western Sahara occupation
v.) Ban Bhutan DrukAir for Nepali suppression
w.) Ban Gulf Air/Emirates/Saudia for discriminating against Qataris
x.) Ban ITA for discriminating against Albanians
y.) Ban all U.S. airlines cause they just, well.......suck.
z.) Do you get the hint now??
None of those countries are currently practicing apartheid, a legally defined term, and that is defined as a "crime against humanity". Next.
Vlcnc, Palestinians are Jordanians. They belong in Jordan.
"Vlcnc, Palestinians are Jordanians. They belong in Jordan."
By that logic, most if not all Jews belong in Europe, north and eastern Africa, Iran, and Iraq, among other places.
@vlcnc
Try telling that to my Burmese Bengali property maintenance guy. Oh, and also to my fellow university classmate who is a West Papuan refugee.
You're so blinkered and narrow-minded, you'd actually make a good Ph.D candidate(!)
@John I'm gonna guess none of these people exist, especially as one is unlikely to be "Burmese Bengali" - they're either Burmese or Bengali, unless you meant Rohingya, in that case you basically used the Burmese Junta's genocidal rhertoric to erase their identity by calling them Bengali's that don't belong in the country.
Amen :)
In “Palestine”” a Jew cannot legally buy a house or land so where is the apartheid?
Yes they just steal it illegally and violently instead while being aided by the Israeli Military.
Maybe try speaking to a real religious Jew and see what he has to say- you’re getting your info from the PLO and Hamas which are terrorists and swore to kill innocent Israelis!
Check your facts again.
Can you tell me Jake when Hamas and the PLO took control of Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and B'Tselem?? Gee, those guys sure must be incompetent to have all that power and still be losing...
Rubbish.
All citizens in Israel have basic democratic rights including the right to vote, the right to hold office, the right to join the judiciary and military and the right to buy housing anywhere.
It’s in the Palestinian areas where there are no elections, no free press, racial bias and violence are rampant. That’s why they are ethnically homogenous, run as dictatorships and Islam is given special status.
Usual complete inversion of the truth from...
Rubbish.
All citizens in Israel have basic democratic rights including the right to vote, the right to hold office, the right to join the judiciary and military and the right to buy housing anywhere.
It’s in the Palestinian areas where there are no elections, no free press, racial bias and violence are rampant. That’s why they are ethnically homogenous, run as dictatorships and Islam is given special status.
Usual complete inversion of the truth from someone who doesn’t know what they are taking about.
Perhaps you mean *sixth* freedom traffic Ben?
Wouldn't the 3 one off flights given El Al an idea of the premium people would be willing to pay for a nonstop flight between the 2 cities.