The Israeli Tourist Board has revealed at this week’s World Travel Market that Israeli national carrier El Al is to increase seasonal capacity between Tel Aviv and London in summer 2013 with up to five additional weekly frequencies on its route to Luton Airport from June 23, 2013, supplementing its existing schedule at Heathrow. The new evening departure from Tel Aviv and overnight return from London will operate until September 1, 2013. El Al has been serving two airports in the UK capital for a long period of time, but remains relatively new to the Luton market having switched its flights there from Stansted in May 2009.

“We are delighted that by increasing frequency, we can offer our customers a wider choice of flight times and departure airport. We are particularly pleased that we have been able to add flights to London Luton Airport, which is very convenient for many of our customers, and will help us to bring more tourists to Israel,” said Ofer Gat, Vice President for Global Sales, El Al.

Alongside El Al, British Airways and easyJet also serve the Tel Aviv – London market, competing directly on the Israeli carrier’s routes with BA flying to Heathrow and easyJet to Luton. In 2011 an estimated 216,000 O&D passengers flew between Tel Aviv and London Heathrow and around 99,000 between Tel Aviv and London Luton. El Al had a respective 54 per cent and 39 per cent share of these two markets, approximately 49 per cent of the total O&D demand between Tel Aviv and London (for comparison BA held a 27.4 per cent marketshare and easyJet 19.0 per cent).

In the table below we show El Al’s proposed scheduled operations between Tel Aviv and London from the beginning of this year through to the end of September 2013 and highlight the growth in frequency planned for next summer. What is most noticeable when you remove monthly variations is that although the carrier plans to operate 100 flights between Tel Aviv and London in July 2013, capacity will still be below that experienced in August 2012, as some of the Luton services are flown with smaller Boeing 737-800s, rather than widebodied 767 and 777 equipment. If you compare the first nine months of 2013 versus the same period this year, planned departures are up 24.4 per cent, but capacity is set to grow just 3.6 per cent.