Israel’s flag carrier, El Al, announced on Sunday that it will launch nonstop service to Hanoi, Seoul and Manila from Tel Aviv, marking a major expansion of its service to Asia.
The thrice-weekly flights to each city will bring to a record 60 the number of destinations serviced by El Al.
The flights to Vietnam—which is already serviced by rival Israeli airline Arkia—will begin in October with economy fares starting at $899 round-trip, while service to South Korea will get underway in March 2027.
No date has been set yet for the launch of the flights to the Philippines.
El Al already offers 16 weekly flights to Thailand and five to Japan.
Meanwhile, the carrier’s subsidiary Sun d’Or, also known as Sundor, will be launching seasonal flights to Catania, Sicily; Cagliari, Sardinia; Basel, Switzerland; and Zagreb and Dubrovnik in Croatia, as well as returning to Denmark after a quarter-century.
Economy fares on these lines will range from $339 to $529 round-trip.
“El Al’s decision to add nine new cities, three of them to Asia, shows that they are going after the leisure market in an aggressive manner,” Mark Feldman, CEO of Jerusalem’s Ziontours, told JNS on Sunday.
“While the public has some anger over their higher fares, it is heartwarming to see El Al expanding its network, and in these days of uncertainty over another conflict with Iran it should find a steady stream of consumers ready to fly to these locations.”
The national carrier is under investigation for allegedly price-gouging fares during the war, when it made record profits, and is facing a $600 million class-action suit for allegedly exploiting the wartime conditions when it often operated as a virtual monopoly.
The airline’s announced expansion highlights the resurgence of the Israeli aviation sector from the two-year war against Hamas in Gaza.
El AL is already flying a record-breaking 55 weekly flights to North America.
“For us, El Al is much more than an airline,” said US Centers Health Care nursing home chain founder Kenny Rozenberg, who financed his son Israeli-American entrepreneur Eli Rozenberg’s controlling stake in the airline. “It is Israel’s essential gateway to the world.”
