2 hours ago
2
Never Miss Another Deal - Follow DansDeals on Facebook
Update, 10/26: El Al resumed this route yesterday with their 787 in retro livery:
EL AL is back at SFO after a long absence, and we captured the airline’s Retro 787 Dreamliner’s departure to Tel Aviv. ✈️
🔴LIVE SAN FRANCISCO (SFO) AIRPORT PLANE SPOTTING ACTION! (October 25th, … https://t.co/xL1b0nDIy8 via @YouTube pic.twitter.com/36mRZyqJwC
— AIRLINE VIDEOS (@airlinevideos) October 25, 2026
As I predicted would happen after El Al announced a return, United will relaunch service on this route on 3/28/27, the first time it will operate the route since the 10/7 massacre in 2023.
Notably, United will have the superior schedule, offering flights departing San Francisco at 7:40pm vs El Al’s 2pm departure time. United can afford to do that as it rotates planes through its San Francisco hub, while it would be far more costly for El Al to have the plane sit on the ground idling for the entire day in San Francisco.
But will they ever compete head to head?
El Al is not selling tickets on this route after 3/25/27. El Al says that it intends to continue flying, but is still not offering flights for sale after United relaunches the route. It’s unusual for an airline not to be selling seats that close-in on an active route that it intends to continue flying, so it appears that the airline is taking a wait-and-see approach before determining if it will continue flying this route and compete with United.
As I noted in June, it is extremely difficult to compete with United from its West Coast Fortress Hub in San Francisco, where the airline has extremely high loyalty, locked in corporate contracts, and a plethora of connecting feed.
Originally posted on 6/1:
San Francisco has a rocky history of service to Tel Aviv.
After years of discussions about the route, United launched 3 weekly 787-8 flights on the high-tech route in March 2016.
The flight was such an immediate success that it was bumped up to daily 787-8 service by October 2016. It was also one of Apple’s primary international routes.
In January 2018, El Al announced that they would compete with United on the route in Q4 with 3 weekly 787-9 flights.
It was a risky addition, as United enjoys a massive corporate and loyalty advantage in San Francisco.
Unsurprisingly, United fought back. After El Al’s announcement, United upgauged the San Francisco-Tel Aviv route from a relatively small 787-8 to a massive 777-300ER (77W), flooding the market with capacity.
That scared El Al enough to postpone the launch of their San Francisco service from November 2018 to 5/13/19. United took advantage of that to downgauge back to the 787-8 that winter, but they brought back the 77W just before El Al launched the route on 5/13/19.
The route didn’t last long, though that was for external reasons. It was suspended in March 2020 due to the pandemic, and it never returned.
United did bring the route back post-COVID with daily 777 and 77W service, but it hasn’t resumed post-10/7/23 and remains suspended indefinitely.
That means it’s a good time for El Al to try their luck on the route again, though don’t be surprised if United tries to beat them to the punch.
El Al will launch 3 weekly 787-9 flights between San Francisco and Tel Aviv on 10/25. It will operate on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays in both directions.
El Al flight 49 (love it!) will depart Tel Aviv at 1:05am and arrive into San Francisco at 7am the same day, a duration of 15:55.
El Al flight 48 will depart San Francisco at 2pm and arrive into Tel Aviv at 12:40pm the following day, a duration of 13:40.
I’m not a big fan of that schedule as it’s not conducive for sleeping hours and maximizing the day in San Francisco. When El Al previously flew the route it also departed Tel Aviv at 1:05am, but the return flight from San Francisco departed at 10pm, arriving into Tel Aviv at 7:40pm.
I assume that the difference is that it previously had to compete with United’s schedule. With no current competition on the route, it can get away with a subpar schedule to save time the aircraft spends idling on the ground in San Francisco.
Then again, if United is able to resume flying to Israel by October, I’d expect it to launch service on the route with a bigger plane and a better schedule. It’s hard to see El Al successfully competing against United at its West Coast Fortress Hub.
But it’s good to see El Al trying out new routes once again. Maybe we’ll even see the airline try out routes like Baltimore or Detroit in the future?
Will you fly on El Al between San Francisco and Tel Aviv?
