Virgin Atlantic permanently cancels Tel Aviv route amid ongoing uncertainty

When is a route not a route? When you haven’t flown it for 18 months.

Despite Virgin Atlantic’s hopes of restarting flights to Tel Aviv during the recent ceasefire, it appears that the airline has accepted that it won’t be able to return any time soon.

Virgin Atlantic launched its flights to Tel Aviv to much fanfare in 2019. I was on the inaugural flight with Richard Branson and the atmosphere was electric, particularly as this was CEO Shai Weiss’ hometown. It was one of the best Virgin Atlantic route launches I have been on:

The five-hour flight time made it the shortest (and cheapest) route in Virgin’s network. One of the benefits of flying Virgin Atlantic over British Airways was its use of long haul aircraft with proper lie-flat business class seats.

It also introduced a wide variety of kosher meals both on board and in its Heathrow Clubhouse, going above and beyond what BA offered.

As a result, the route was a commercial success, going double daily in late 2023 just before the most recent conflict erupted.

Virgin Atlantic’s last flight to Tel Aviv operated on 11th October 2023 and the route has been suspended since, although it has announced plans to restart multiple times.

With no end in sight for the off-again-on-again conflict, Virgin Atlantic has formally withdrawn the route from its network:

“After careful consideration we have taken the difficult decision to cancel our services between London Heathrow and Tel Aviv.

“We will continue to serve Tel Aviv as the only UK airline to have a partnership with EL AL, Israel’s national carrier, on services between Tel Aviv Ben Gurion and London Heathrow. 

“The codeshare partnership with EL AL offers connections between Israel, the UK and the US, allowing customers greater flexibility, with frequencies up to four daily flights, and choice when selecting travel between Israel and the UK.

“Our partnership will offer reciprocal earn and redemption opportunities, as well as premium customer recognition and tier benefits for frequent flyers, including Flying Club and EL AL’s Matmid program. Virgin Atlantic customers will be able to travel on EL AL’s services from Tel Aviv to Heathrow and connect onwards to multiple US destinations, including Las Vegas, Miami, New York and Atlanta.”

Virgin Atlantic’s main shareholder Delta Air Lines has its own partnership with EL AL since December 2023. This has removed part of the need for the Virgin Atlantic service, which was partially aimed at connecting US traffic.

Here is the customer guidance Virgin has issued for affected passengers:

“We’re really sorry for the disappointment caused to our loyal customers. Anyone booked to travel will be contacted by email with their options from 10th May which include the option to rebook onto an alternative carrier or request a refund.”

Don’t rush to the phone lines. Virgin says it will contact you from 10th May if you have a booking that is affected, whilst the ‘My Booking’ section of the website and app will be updated with the cancellation on the same day.

Other airlines are pressing ahead with flights to Israel despite the uncertainty. British Airways has resumed services although with hostilities once again rising it’s unclear how long this will last. easyJet is also due to resume services in June.

Wizz Air is operating the route from Luton and EL AL has continued to fly throughout the conflict. You can continue to redeem Virgin Points on EL AL although the rates are pretty poor.