Then and now: 6 ways in which El Al’s most historic route has improved in simply 2 years

The Dreamliner affords a considerably higher onboard expertise. The business-class pods flip into lie-flat beds, and there is even a reasonably priced premium economic system cabin for these searching for a domestic-first-class-style expertise with out breaking the financial institution.

Even the economic system seats are upgraded with new cushioning and contoured headrests.

I booked a business-class ticket on my latest flight to Dubai, and I used to be overwhelmingly impressed with the Recaro CL6710 product. I used to be assigned a window-adjacent solo pod, which featured loads of privateness and storage.

Given the flight’s 5:30 a.m. departure time, I had no bother catching up on some sleep after changing the seat right into a mattress.

The Dreamliner’s onboard expertise was a night-and-day distinction relative to the El Al inaugural I took two years earlier. Should you’re planning to fly the route, I would extremely advocate choosing a frequency operated by an El Al 787.

Nevertheless, it is not simply El Al that is deploying its fanciest planes on these routes. Emirates now flies each day between Tel Aviv and Dubai on a Boeing 777-300, whereas FlyDubai operates some flights with its lie-flat-equipped Boeing 737 MAXes.

Whereas Emirates undoubtedly affords the most effective general premium expertise with its first-class product, the 2-3-2 business-class configuration pales compared to El Al’s 1-2-1 configuration, which affords direct aisle entry at each seat.

Fancier facilities

One other welcome enchancment that I skilled on my latest El Al flight to Dubai was the introduction of fancier facilities.

Maybe it was as a result of my flight was operated by a Dreamliner, which usually flies longer-haul missions, however ready at my seat throughout boarding was El Al’s signature pillow and cover made by Hollandia.

I even obtained a L’Occitane-branded amenity equipment, which included a deal with for aviation fanatics — a pair of airline-branded socks bearing the airport codes of an El Al route. (I obtained the intense orange Tel Aviv-to-Hong Kong pair.)

I additionally appreciated the small tubes of hand cream and lip balm, in addition to the single-use refreshing towel.

Once I flew the route again in 2020, I obtained an unbranded amenity equipment, stocked with socks, earplugs, a toothbrush and an eye fixed masks.

The breakfast entree choices have been both a tomato and cheese omelet or blintzes. I went with the latter, which was scrumptious.

The featured dish was served with a facet of pickles and tomatoes, some Center Japanese dips and salads, two miniature loaves of bread and a cheesecake dessert.

Whereas the meals itself was tasty, I additionally appreciated the fashionable crockery and the good presentation of all of the meal contents.

Again once I flew in 2020, no sizzling meals was supplied, and the meal — proven above — was introduced with the plastic overlaying intact. Even the bread rolls again then have been individually wrapped, so the enhancements to the meal service have been particularly noticeable.

A brand new everlasting routing

Because the crow flies, getting between Tel Aviv and Dubai requires flying proper over Saudi Arabia. That posed an issue for El Al for the reason that Kingdom traditionally did not permit Israeli-registered plane to make use of its airspace.

With out overfly rights, Israeli plane would wish to fly over the Crimson Sea and across the Arabian Peninsula to get to and from Dubai, tacking on additional hours and pointless gasoline burn. Nevertheless, UAE-based plane may transit over Saudi Arabia, placing Israeli airways at a major drawback.

Earlier than flights have been launched between Israel and the UAE in 2020, authorities authorities labored to safe these overfly rights with Saudi Arabia.

They did, however with an enormous situation — the overfly rights solely utilized to routes to and from the UAE and Bahrain. Different flights, like El Al’s service to Bangkok and Phuket, would nonetheless must divert round Saudi Arabia.

This not solely is sweet information for the business feasibility of El Al’s UAE routes, nevertheless it additionally unlocks some key development alternatives for the airline, together with attainable locations in India and past.

Nevertheless, the feasibility of those routes relies on Tel Aviv additionally receiving overfly rights from Oman, which remains to be a piece in progress.

Backside line

For me, flying between Israel and the UAE on a nonstop El Al flight remains to be fairly surreal.

This time, the expertise was considerably extra nice. For one, I did not have to fret about onerous COVID-19-related restrictions.

Additionally, the flight itself — from the time within the King David Lounge to the Dreamliner’s spectacular onboard expertise — was so significantly better than spherical one.

The subsequent time I fly the route, I would love to present Emirates firstclass a strive. Nevertheless, with an outdated 2-3-2 configuration in enterprise class, El Al’s Dreamliner undoubtedly looks like the way in which to go in should you’re flying in enterprise.