After a six-and-a-half-year break, El Al Airlines announced on Monday that it will resume nonstop service to San Francisco this fall amid heightened demand between the two tech hubs.
The news comes as an opportune moment, with United Airlines’ service on the route indefinitely suspended.
El Al will offer thrice-weekly flights to San Francisco from Oct. 25, with fares starting at $1,199 round-trip in economy.
The 15-hour flights, which will operate on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday, will be numbered #LY49 in homage to the San Francisco 49ers.
The outbound flight from Tel Aviv will be overnight, while the return will be in the afternoon.
“San Francisco is one of the most important technology, innovation, and business hubs in the world, with a large and central Israeli community,” said Shlomi Zafrani, El Al’s vice president of commerce and sales. “The opening of the new route is intended to respond to significant demand from the business and Israeli community in the region, and to enable a more direct … and convenient connection between Israel and Silicon Valley.”
El Al flew between the two cities from late 2018 until early 2020, when the route was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The scheduled resumption of service comes at a timely moment for Israel’s flag carrier, as all three U.S. legacy airlines have suspended service to Israel until the fall due to the ongoing regional turbulence.
United Airlines has also flown between San Francisco and Tel Aviv, but its service on the route has been halted since the Hamas-led attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
The new route brings the number of weekly nonstop flights El Al offers to and from the United States this winter to 45, with direct service to six cities, including New York, New Jersey, Miami, Boston and Los Angeles.
“The United States remains the most profitable country for El Al, and renewing flights to San Francisco will only lead to El Al’s continued domination,” Mark Feldman, CEO of Jerusalem’s Ziontours, told JNS. “With United Airlines unable to commit to the resumption of flights, El Al’s path to a second nonstop flight from California after Los Angeles is both a savvy move and a strong indication of how firmly they believe in that route.”
