Good news to our Holy Land pilgrims as Philippine Airlines may fly to Tel Aviv Israel starting October of this year. This is a very good development given the present circumstance and crisis the travel industry is facing. This will also directly connect the Philippines to Israel via non-stop Airbus A350 flights. This will make travel to the Holy Land easier and faster. Less stop overs too in this case.
PAL is looking to fly from Manila to Tel Aviv Ben-Gurion International Airport twice a week.
Both PAL President and COO Gilbert Sta. Maria and the Israel Ministry of Tourism Director General Amir Halevi are carrying out exploratory talks.
Resumption of Israel flights
This is not the first time that PAL will be operating commercial flights between the Philippines and Israel. They used to operate the route way back the 1940s and 1950s. So technically, this is a resumption of Israel flights. However, due to the long period, it seems like this is a total new route.
PAL would however operates chartered or special flights to Israel such as Presidential flights and repatriation flights to name a few. This is rare though, but the airline is definitely not a newbie for the route.
Home to 28,000 OFWs
Israel is home to 28,000 Overseas Filipino Workers usually based in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa. It is also a very popular tourist attraction to Christians. Church groups usually hold Holy Land tours until this pandemic caused the country to shut its borders. However, Israel is slowly opening its borders to tourism. They will begin with vaccinated tour groups from May 23 and eventually, other travelers as early as July 2021. Israel is one of those few countries successful in controlling the covid-19 pandemic.
PAL wants to serve of course the OFWs and the tour groups flying between Manila and Israel.
Airbus A350 flight
PAL is planning to deploy its Airbus A350-900 for the route. The distance between Manila and Tel Aviv based on Airmilescalculator.com is 8,814kms, totally within the A350‘s range. Flying time is an estimated 10 hours 52 minutes, depending on the route the flight takes. The aircraft can sit 295 passengers comfortably in a 3-class configuration. This includes 241 economy seats, 24 premium economy, and 30 business class seats. It is also the newest aircraft in the PAL widebody fleet.
As such, we are happy that Philippine Airlines may fly to Tel Aviv Israel starting October of this year.
