With American having ended its route between Miami and Tel Aviv, EL AL is using the opportunity to expand in South Florida. Earlier this year, the airline announced it would operate a total of six roundtrip flights between Fort Lauderdale and Tel Aviv in the fall of 2023. Now the airline has revealed that this service is permanent, as reported by DansDeals.
In this post:
EL AL’s new Tel Aviv to Fort Lauderdale route
EL AL already flies between Tel Aviv (TLV) and Miami (MIA) using Boeing 787s. The airline will now be adding service to a second airport in South Florida — Fort Lauderdale (FLL). The airline will be gradually ramping up this service.
EL AL will first offer a total of six roundtrip flights between Tel Aviv and Fort Lauderdale in September and October 2023, over popular holiday travel periods. Specifically, on September 13, 20, 27, and October 5, 10, and 12, the airline will operate the following flights, which are already on sale:
LY21 Tel Aviv to Fort Lauderdale departing 1:00AM arriving 7:30AM
LY22 Fort Lauderdale to Tel Aviv departing 9:00PM arriving 4:05PM (+1 day)
The 6,584-mile flight is blocked at 13hr30min westbound and 12hr5min eastbound. The flight will be operated by a Boeing 787-8, featuring 238 seats. This includes 20 business class seats, 35 premium economy seats, and 183 economy seats.
Then as of April 15, 2024, the airline will permanently add 2x weekly flights between the airports. While it’s not yet fully loaded into the schedule, the April 15 service is already bookable.
It’s great to see EL AL expanding in South Florida
There’s quite a bit of traffic between Israel and South Florida. There’s demand in both directions — there are plenty of people in South Florida with ties to Israel, and lots of Israelis who want to vacation in South Florida.
EL AL has flown between Tel Aviv and Miami for many years. American launched the route as well as of June 2021, though terminated the route as of March 2023. That caught many people off guard.
It’s not entirely clear if American had lost money on its Miami to Tel Aviv route, or if it just decided that the Boeing 787 could be utilized more profitably in another market, especially with Asia now open on a widespread basis.
Given the demand that exists, it’s nice to see EL AL looking to expand. Many will also appreciate that EL AL is looking to serve a second airport in South Florida, rather than just adding more flights to Miami. Fort Lauderdale is a more convenient option for many.
The airport also generally has lower fees for airlines, though I imagine those savings are largely wiped out by splitting operations, which isn’t as efficient in terms of economies of scale.
Bottom line
EL AL will be expanding in South Florida, with a new Tel Aviv to Fort Lauderdale route. This will initially operate just six times roundtrip in September and October 2023, before being operated twice weekly year-round starting in April 2024. With American having pulled out of the Miami to Tel Aviv market, it’s good to see EL AL now adding capacity.
What do you make of EL AL adding Tel Aviv to Fort Lauderdale flights?
This flight will be the answer to 'which flight is worse to work than EWR-TLV' .
El Al did TLV-MCO for a few weeks last year but didn't do it again this year. Guess it wasn't what they'd hoped it would be.
This is an innovative way to serve a metro area. Rather than increasing frequencies to MIA, they start flights to FLL too. It's just like Zipair launching SFO-NRT in addition to SJC-NRT.
Disappointed that they will not be offering any competitive air fares for connections beyond TLV like DXB or whatever. I know EK goes non-stop from MIA but coming from Naples as I do the FLL airport is so much easier to deal with it is almost worth the connection hassle if I am going onward to DXB.
Smart move. There’s a large Israeli expat community in the Hollywood area. It’s a pain to schlep to MIA from there. Plus FLL is arguably a better airport - not as busy, more compact, fewer delays.
Tons of demand, no doubt... but I do wonder what the fares are like, for AA to just pull out like that.
Even if they were eeking out a small profit, it seems the Opportunity Cost was in favor of them moving the jet elsewhere. Sorta sad to see.
I think this is a great move for El Al and opens up a new segment of customers. Miami might as well be a different country (well, that's debatable) to those north of 595, especially those from Palm Beach and especially those who are older in age. I speak from experience being on the board of a non-profit that gets a lot of support from Boca and points north and the moment we have an...
I think this is a great move for El Al and opens up a new segment of customers. Miami might as well be a different country (well, that's debatable) to those north of 595, especially those from Palm Beach and especially those who are older in age. I speak from experience being on the board of a non-profit that gets a lot of support from Boca and points north and the moment we have an event in Opa Locka or Miami, it's like they've never heard of us. I think this service will do well.
Too bad that El Al is still not serving Toronto YYZ.
AA needs to bring back MIA-TLV
Old news. EL AL announced FLL-TLV months ago.
They just announced today that it was being made 2x weekly permanently. That was the news.
Slam American! United has a FLL base and it’s a satellite base but they could have made this work better than American. EWR to Doha would work better on United as well vs PHL to Doha. AA is more domestic Debbie.
United could have made what work better than American? MIA to TLV? You keep harping on United flying EWR to DOH? What does that have to do with El Al flying to FLL? What does it even have to do with AA moving its DOH flight to FLL?
Correction: AA moving its DOH flight to PHL.
United has a larger presence in FLL than most non-hubs, but it is still rather small. El Al doesn't need the transit traffic from FLL as there are so many people with ties to Israel in between FLL and West Palm Beach, plus anyone is northern MIA that are closer to FLL Airport.
United isn’t top 5 in market share at FLL.