With Air Canada\u2019s announcement of the resumption of flights from Toronto and Montreal to Tel Aviv, it will be much faster for Canadians to fly to Israel. But will it be cheaper?<\/p>\n
The Canadian national carrier is set to resume its routes to Tel Aviv on June 8 with four weekly flights between Pearson International Airport and Ben-Gurion Airport. From August, it will fly from YUL Montr\u00e9al-Trudeau International Airport once weekly.<\/p>\n
Since 2022, when El Al Israel Airlines halted its flights to Canada, there have been no direct flights between Toronto or Montreal and Tel Aviv.\u00a0Air Canada suspended its Israel operations following Hamas\u2019s Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel. It resumed services just before the Iranian missile attack on Israel on April 13, 2024, then again suspended flights, repeatedly extending the suspension, until announcing that flights would not be resumed until further notice.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are looking forward to booking\u00a0direct non-stop flights from Toronto and Montreal again,\u201d said Toby Soil of Toronto\u2019s Peerless Travel. \u201cDuring these very difficult times, we were booking flights from New York with El Al, which did an excellent job, or booking flights with Air Canada, El Al and other European airlines through Europe with a stop-over.\u201d<\/p>\n
Air Canada has undertaken an extensive safety analysis, which will continue leading up to and after June 8, said Soil. The airline will continue to monitor the situation in the region and adjust its schedule accordingly, including future service increases as warranted. Prices will depend on availability,\u00a0class of service\u00a0and season, she explained.<\/p>\n
Other North American carriers that have\u00a0announced they\u00a0are resuming flying on the Tel Aviv-New York route include United Airlines, which scheduled flights beginning on March 15, and Delta Airlines, on April 1. Delta had ceased flying to Israel at the end of July 2024.<\/p>\n
Air India resumed its long-haul flight services from Delhi and Mumbai to Tel Aviv on March 2. Similarly, China\u2019s Hainan Airlines will resume twice weekly direct flights between Tel Aviv and Beijing starting April 10.<\/p>\n
European airlines that have recently announced the resumption of flights to and from Israel include Air France, which resumed flying to Ben-Gurion Airport on Jan. 25; Iberia, which will start on April 1; Air Baltic, on April 2; and KLM and EasyJet\u00a0both beginning on June 1.<\/p>\n
By the summer peak season, three North American airlines will be operating flights to Israel after months in which only El Al scheduled direct flights between Tel Aviv and New York. That near-monopoly allowed El Al to raise its fares. Last November, the airline posted record quarterly profit and revenue. The Israeli airline drew criticism from customers in Israel and abroad for alleged price-gouging.<\/p>\n
David J. Rotfleisch is a Toronto lawyer who made aliyah two-and-a-half years ago and now lives in Jerusalem, but commutes regularly to Canada.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn October 2022, the month after I made aliyah, El Al stopped flying directly to Tel Aviv from Canada,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u201cThat left Air Canada as the only option for a direct flight. Post-October 2023, Air Canada canceled its flights, meaning there was no way to fly directly to Israel from Canada, which I need to do, both because my law office is in Toronto and to visit friends and family.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, with the resumption of the Air Canada flights, a direct 12-hour return flight for the holidays, leaving in September and returning in October, is around $2,300 Cdn in basic economy.\u00a0Flying Polish LOT Airlines via Warsaw will cost about $1,600 Cdn return in basic economy and will take 19 hours or longer depending on the connections.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last September, Rotfleisch was forced to fly Ethiopian Airlines to Addis Ababa to reach Israel for Rosh Hashanah.<\/p>\n
With high demand and limited capacity, travel experts don\u2019t forecast a fall in prices during the Passover holiday or summer season.<\/p>\n
\u201cServices by foreign airlines are going to gradually grow and we are going to gradually see prices come down, but they are not going to be down dramatically for Passover or the August period, when most Israelis are looking to book vacations with their families,\u201d Yaneev Lanis, co-founder of online booking site Secret Flights, told\u00a0the Times of Israel<\/i>. \u201cPassover period is always an expensive period to travel, and especially this year, when there is still going to be less supply than usual.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said, \u201cPassover ticket prices are going to be higher, and I wouldn\u2019t expect prices to drop, as demand will be very high and foreign airlines are planning to come back in a low capacity, which means that they will easily be able to fill up their planes and there is no reason for them to reduce prices.\u201d<\/p>\n
Overall, ticket prices to and from Israel have more than doubled at times since the Gaza War broke out on Oct. 7, 2023.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Gil Zohar<\/b> is a writer and tour guide in Jerusalem.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With Air Canada\u2019s announcement of the resumption of flights from Toronto and Montreal to Tel Aviv, it will be much faster for Canadians to fly to Israel. But will it be cheaper? The Canadian national carrier is set to resume its routes to Tel Aviv on June 8 with four weekly flights between Pearson International […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46105,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4329,5],"tags":[662,23882,3200,3064,23881,22729,23883],"class_list":["post-46103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-israel","category-national","tag-air-canada","tag-david-j-rotfleisch","tag-economics","tag-el-al","tag-flights-to-israel","tag-israel-hamas-war","tag-yaneev-lanis"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}