El Al to Drop Brazilian Service

Posted 05/08/2011

Israeli carrier El Al is to suspend its three times weekly service from Tel Aviv to Sao Paulo this winter, the only non-stop service between Israel and South America.  The airline says that ongoing rises in the price fuel and high operational costs have forced it to take this decision following a recent re-evaluation of its international network.  The last flight is now scheduled to take place on November 10.

An estimated 221,000 O&D passengers travelled between Israel and South America in the past year with almost 33,000 flying directly between Tel Aviv and Sao Paulo.  These passengers will now have to make alternative arrangements to fly on the route in the future, with Iberia expected to benefit from the El Al decision. 

ESTIMATED PASSENGER TRAFFIC BETWEEN ISRAEL AND SOUTH AMERICA (bi-directional O&D traffic)
RANK	AIRLINE	ESTIMATED O&D PASSENGERS	% DEMAND
1	Iberia	74,795	33.8 %
2	El Al Israel Airlines	70,851	32.0 %
3	Alitalia	27,152	12.3 %
4	Air France	10,653	4.8 %
5	Lufthansa	7,422	3.4 %
(others)		30,571	13.8 %
TOTAL		221,448	-

As the table above highlights, the Spanish national carrier is actually the largest operator between Israel and South America, carrying more passengers in the past 12 months than El Al.  In that period its share of the market has also grown from 32.7 to 33.8 per cent.  Its main traffic flow is between Tel Aviv and Buenos Aires where it handed around 26,000 O&D passengers, although strong passenger levels are also apparent on routes to Lima, Rio de Janeiro, Bogota and Santiago. 

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