Israir gets in line for TLV-NYC flights, but fares on El Al-ruled route to stay sky-high
Low-cost local carrier will offer seats to US next year; until then, war and fears of fresh cancellations are keeping prices raised despite competition from Arkia, Delta and United
Sharon Wrobel is a tech reporter for The Times of Israel
Low-cost carrier Israir is set to become the third Israeli airline to operate nonstop flights between Tel Aviv and New York starting next year. But despite the extra competition to flagship carrier El Al, it will likely be some time before consumers can reasonably hope for airfare prices to begin to sink back toward prewar levels.
Though El Al is no longer the only option for those looking to fly nonstop between Israel and North America, prices have remained higher than normal. Recent months have seen a second Israeli carrier — Arkia — enter the field, along with two US carriers. But capacity and demand are still limited by war and many Israeli travelers are willing to pay a premium to avoid booking with airlines liable to cancel trips should rocket sirens start blaring again. This keeps El Al from needing to bring down prices to more competitive levels.
On Monday, Israir announced that it would become the third Israeli carrier to offer flights to New York, saying it had been granted a two-year temporary carrier permit by the US Department of Transportation, with final approval to launch the route expected by June. The airline said that it hopes to start plying the route by Passover 2026, with as many as six weekly nonstop roundtrip flights between Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport and New York.
“In the short-term, Israir’s announcement will have zero effect on ticket prices, but in the long-term the carrier could prove to be a competitor for El Al on the route next year,” Ziontours Jerusalem CEO Mark Feldman told The Times of Israel. “However, prices will not drop dramatically until we see an influx of incoming tourists filling up airplanes of foreign and local airlines, but for now, we are in the middle of a war, and they are not returning.”
Ophir Tours chief marketing officer Neta Gafni was hopeful that Israir’s launch of flights to the US would further increase seat availability on the Tel Aviv-New York route, “which in turn means that other carriers operating the service will eventually need to bring down prices to compete and fill up the seats of their planes.”
For now, round-trip fares on the Tel Aviv-New York route are expected to continue to be priced around $1,200 to $1,800 for the coming months and may climb to around $2,000 or higher during the peak summer travel season.
That’s a steep discount from last year, when the mass departure of all foreign carriers amid the war in Gaza gave El Al a monopoly on the route and prices climbed as high as $7,000, with economy seats hard to come by.
But it’s still significantly higher than the sub-$1000 round-trip tickets that could be had before war broke out 18 months ago.
The entry of additional Israeli airlines and partial return of US airlines will probably not be enough to bring airfares on direct flights to New York back down to those levels, according to travel experts who spoke to The Times of Israel.
The plans for the debut of Israir’s long-haul flight service to New York come after Israel’s Arkia launched nonstop service between Tel Aviv and New York in early February, betting that Israelis would be eager to fly abroad during the peak spring and summer travel seasons. The Israeli carrier originally planned to operate the route for a period of only three months, but recently extended the service until October.
Hopes for a sustained ceasefire-hostage release deal and a seemingly gradual reduction in tensions earlier this year also prompted some major foreign airlines, including US carriers Delta and United Airlines, to resume part of their flight services to and from Israel in recent weeks, albeit with limited capacity and frequency. United Airlines restarted its flights to Israel on March 15, and Delta Air Lines relaunched its Tel Aviv-New York route on April 1.
Feldman noted that round-trip ticket prices to New York in May for flights operated by US carriers are selling for around $1,500, while El Al’s price tag is $1,800. Round-trip airfares from Tel Aviv to New York with Arkia sell for as low as around $999, including luggage, seating and two meals, but only for a limited special promotion period during May and June. From July, Arkia’s round-trip fare on the route is around $1,800, similar to El Al’s ticket prices.
But going for the cheaper fares on foreign airlines — or finding a bargain by stopping in Europe — comes with the added worry that flights could be canceled due to the security situation and passengers could be stranded.
“That’s a nice, substantial difference for people who are flying with United to Newark, taking the risk, hoping that United will not pull out again, and saving a few hundred dollars against El Al,” said Feldman. “Consumers may still get mad about why El Al ticket prices are still high, but at least we can now offer them alternatives with United or Delta, which we could not a year ago.”
Arkia, meanwhile, lacks the ability to fully compete with El Al on a level playing field, he added.
“Arkia attracts a different clientele, they have found a niche with marketing to the ultra-Orthodox population, but they are not the businesspeople who will prefer to fly with airlines such as El Al as it is reliable and offers connections within North America,” said Feldman.
Feldman said that consumers who bought their tickets in January and February paid a more expensive airfare than people buying their tickets in April for the summer. Gafni called current prices “reasonable.”
“Israelis can buy summer ticket prices for what they were paying in February and March — they were paying around $2,500 in February to fly, and now they can fly under that in the summer,” said Feldman.
Both said that most of their customers still prefer to book with El Al because of the built-up trust among travelers that the flagship carrier is a safe bet as it continued to fly during the war when foreign carriers stopped flying.
“We are seeing that competition hasn’t much affected El Al since their planes are full as there are still enough people willing to pay a premium to fly with El Al,” said Feldman. “People have been flying El Al for every reason in the last 18 months: it is a reliable, safe, and stable airline, and they know they are going to fly and get home when foreign carriers stop their services if the security situation deteriorates.”
“That’s why we haven’t seen El AL lower its prices to compete with Arkia, and that’s why United or Delta can come back and grab market space, which is what they have done with slightly cheaper prices,” Feldman added. “This will certainly continue for the spring and for the summer, unless the situation in Gaza is resolved and the security situation changes.”
The Times of Israel Community.