The lower cost unit of El Al Israel Airlines, Sun D’Or, has confirmed the cancellation of most of its services to the former Yugoslavia, including its planned new summer flights from Tel Aviv to Belgrade, as well as the resumption of its seasonal operations to Ljubljana and Zagreb. The carrier initially delayed the launch of the three routes but has now removed the trio from the Global Distribution System. ”The continuation of fighting and the ramifications for the aviation world create difficulty in leasing aircraft and affect Sun d'Or's ability to operate the planned flight schedule fully. The decision to cancel the flights comes after exhausting all possible options to operate them”, the airline said.
Apart from flights to Serbia, Slovenia and Croatia, Sun d’Or has also cancelled its services to Porto and Naples. Within the former Yugoslavia, the carrier will continue to serve Tivat as planned this summer. “Customers who purchased tickets to destinations on the discussed routes will be able to choose from a variety of alternatives that include reaching the destination via connecting points through one of El Al's destinations or exchanging the flight ticket to another one of El Al's destinations in Europe (except for Paris and London), or cancelling the ticket and receiving a full monetary refund. All passengers will be updated about the cancellation of their flight in the coming days by SMS or email, and they will be able to choose their preferred option”, Sun d’Or noted.
The development leaves Zagreb without scheduled flights to Tel Aviv, although Croatia Airlines is expected to serve the city this summer, if circumstances permit, on a charter basis. On the other hand, Israir will continue to operate services between Tel Aviv and Belgrade throughout the summer season with two weekly rotations, while the carrier plans to resume its seasonal Ljubljana operation from June 4, with one weekly service throughout most of the summer. Air Serbia, which operated flights between Belgrade and Tel Aviv until late October of last year has tentatively scheduled its return to the Israeli city for October 27, at the start of the 2024/25 winter season, although changes remain likely.
I think the issue is that airines can't lease planned to them because of insurance. Then again I notice many Israeli airlines with wet leased capacity
ReplyDelete*planes
DeleteYes I see Electra Airways is operating some of Israir's flights to Belgrade
DeleteEven one of three weekly flights by Sun d'Or was planned with wet lease capacity.
DeleteElectra Airways was one of the first airlines to return to Israel and start providing capacity, Smartwings is soon expected to hand over at least 5 737-800s to Israir for the summer. Bluebird Airways is also restoring some flights and will even deliver new destinations next summer, also will have ACMI planes as 2023.
DeleteZAG has no scheduled flights with TLV? Doesn't El Al fly there anymore?
ReplyDeleteNo
DeleteEl Al flights were taken over by Sun d'Or some time ago
DeletePity, it was easy to buy their tickets online unlike other Israeli airlines.
ReplyDeleteI don't think too many foreigners are planning to go there this summer anyway.
DeleteAmerican Jews do, in their tens of thousands. Business as usual.
DeleteWhat is the point of JU scheduling TLV at the end of October?!
ReplyDeleteExactly, most other European airlines have restored flights to TLV since Hamas can't launch any rockets at it now.
DeleteNot enough airplanes, too long rotation, same issue with CAI
DeleteAll this Marathon mess.
DeleteThey needed too much time to come back to TLV after Covid too, some slot issues...
DeleteYes, I remember that. Could be
DeleteUnfortunate, was really excited to see their jets in LJU
ReplyDeletePrices will be astronomical
ReplyDeleteThey are already expensive to Israel. Not enough supply to meet demand out of Israel.
DeleteExpected
ReplyDeleteWhat about Arkia? Do they no longer fly to the region?
ReplyDeleteThey fly on and off but I think they only fly to BEG in ex-Yu.
Delete:(
ReplyDeleteI wonder what was the demand like for these three routes.
ReplyDeleteI remember some tickets going for +400€ return, so probably pretty massive
DeleteAt least they keep Tivat
ReplyDeleteTruth be told, they need it the most.
DeleteWhy?
DeleteBecause their passenger numbers so far this year are the same as last year and are way down on 2019.
DeleteI am surprised that they out of all destinations in ex Yu the chose Tivat to keep.
DeleteReally didn’t see that coming.
Knew it was aircraft related. Oh well. There is always next year.
ReplyDeleteIsrair is leasing Smartwings aircraft for their ops...where's the difference with them?
ReplyDeleteObviously Sun d'Or could not find enough aircraft to serve its entire network, otherwise they wouldn't drop 5 routes.
DeleteIn genreal very few flights from the region to TLV.
ReplyDeleteFrom ex-Yu yes
DeleteInterestingly, based on statistics, there have been more torists from Israel to Serbia this year than last year.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised JU is not resuming flights earlier considering they were one of the last airlines to stop flights to Tel Aviv.
ReplyDeleteThey don't have enough planes.
DeleteTill end of 2024 all airlines will resume ops to Tel Aviv.
ReplyDeleteOdd that Sun dÓr uses El Al designator code.
ReplyDeleteIt's brand as Aviolet not own AOC. 😉
DeleteOh, that makes sense thank you :)
DeleteBTW Israir have ACMI planes as Arkia.
ReplyDeleteISRAIR NS24 LEASED SMARTWINGS BOEING 737 OPERATIONS
Tel Aviv – Athens
Tel Aviv – Batumi
Tel Aviv – Budapest
Tel Aviv – Catania
Tel Aviv – Chania
Tel Aviv – Larnaca
Tel Aviv – Lisbon
Tel Aviv – Naples
Tel Aviv – Paphos
Tel Aviv – Prague
Tel Aviv – Rhodes
Tel Aviv – Rome Fiumicino
Tel Aviv – Salzburg
Tel Aviv – Tbilisi
Tel Aviv – Thira
Tel Aviv – Tirana
Tel Aviv – Tivat
Tel Aviv – Varna
Tel Aviv – Verona
Saw this news picked up by Airways Magazine citing exYu. Nice job :)
ReplyDeleteHow can Athens maintain so many daily flights to TLV year round and our ExYu markets can’t even maintain seasonal ones?
ReplyDeleteExtremely many Jewish tourists, there is also a diaspora. There is a small Jewish diaspora in Ex-Yu, perhaps even only in Serbia. In Romania, Ukraine, Bulgaria and Hungary, for example, there are many more. In Athens, too, many Jews have properties and come there for the summer or several times a year, this is also the case in Northern Greece.
DeleteIn Cyprus, the lay is even much more interesting there spews of Jewish tourists and there are even more people living there, add business traffic and diaspora, it is close and accessible and warm all year round.
Delete19:59
DeleteThis is why OTP, SOF and BUD as well as KBP before have more flights to TLV. For example, Israir and Arkia now take advantage of the lack of W6 and FR and have more flights there. Same situation with BEG, they even use A320 to Serbia instead of E195. They take advantage of the situation while JU is away.