View this post on Hive: The Case for Israel - Australia Direct Flights - Part 1

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The Case for Israel - Australia Direct Flights

April 2018 (Ver 7)

From the charge of the Australian Light Horse at Beer Sheva in 1917, through the first Yes vote in the UN for a Jewish State in 1947, to the close political, economic and high-tech relations of today, Australia and Israel have always been friends and allies.

Today, both nations are seeking to further enhance relations with regular Ministerial visits, thriving Trade Missions, rapidly growing bi-lateral trade and state based R&D cooperation. Double taxation & Federal R&D cooperation treaties are in the works and Australia’s new Innovation Initiative has set up a Tel Aviv landing pad for Australian entrepreneurs.

Yet there is one fly in the ointment to these enhanced relations, which affects everyone from Ministers and moguls to pilgrims and tourists - lack of direct flights between Israel and Australia. Indeed in 2016 the Australian Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop was reported to have taken 36 hours to get from Canberra to Tel Aviv! A direct flight would take less than half that time.

Current flight options are terrible

Despite the fact that Australia is physically closer to Israel than it is to the United States or Europe, current flight options take upward of 24 hours, with 30 hours (via Europe) and even 48 hours (via Korea from Sydney) often being the best overall option. They involve one of four bad choices:

one stop but flying thousands of miles out of the way to avoid unfriendly countries to a North Asian transit point that is itself thousands of miles off the direct route and with only three (often expensive) airline options (El Al, Cathay Pacific or Korean Airlines);
two stops, flying first to the relatively close Jordan, Cyprus, Egypt or Turkey and then a more direct route to Australia via the Gulf States or Singapore;
two stops, flying first 3-4 hours in the wrong direction to Europe and then on one of the many European or Asian airlines flying to Australia;
the recently introduced option of flying Air India via Delhi, a fairly direct route (with Air India flying over Saudi Arabia & Oman) but with poor connections including a 20+ hour layover from Sydney & Melbourne to Tel Aviv.

As can be seen from the above map, the direct routes between Tel Aviv and Australian capital cities cross the Indian Ocean well south of Asia and any Asian transit point is a major detour.

Moreover, El Al flights to Asia divert 2+ hours off the direct route to avoid unfriendly countries, yet this would not be necessary with direct flights to Australia as routes are available which are completely over water and involve less than 1 hour diversions to avoid unfriendly countries.

The recent historic decision by Saudi Arabia & Oman to allow Air India to overfly them on the Tel Aviv - Delhi route opens up the opportunity for Australian airlines to also fly over Saudi Arabia & Oman for the shortest possible (great circle) route saving a further 40 - 50 minutes over the Red Sea route.

Direct Flights would save 7+ hours and changing planes

Direct flights would be 16-17 hours from the Australian east coast and 13-14 hours from Perth. This would be a dramatic improvement over current options and would bring major benefits both to the airlines flying the route and the Israel - Australia relationship.

Yes, it IS possible using current aircraft

While direct flights between Tel Aviv and eastern Australian capital cities were once beyond the range of commercial airliners, today there are many commercial aircraft, including those already in El Al, Qantas and Virgin Australia’s fleets that are capable of direct flights between Israel and Australia.

Both El Al & Qantas have recently received the new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner. These aircraft are already commercially viable on the Red Sea route MEL - TLV - MEL, as demonstrated by Qantas using them on the longer PER - LON - PER route.

However, the new over-Saudi option brings savings of 775km for Sydney and 659km for Melbourne over the Red Sea route. This brings a wider range of aircraft including the 787-9, 787-8 & Airbus A380 into contention as being able to fly these routes with full commercial capacity.

With new 330 and 370 minute ETOPS rules applying to these modern aircraft there is no issue in flying the direct route straight across the Indian ocean. Again this is proven by Qantas’ Perth - London route flies a very similar over Indian ocean route. Alternative airports of Port Headland (Australia), Cocos (Keeling) Islands (Australia), Columbo (Sri Lanka), Maldives or British Indian Ocean Territory, Seychelles and Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) provide Israel friendly airports well within 330 minutes flying time of the direct Australia - Israel routes.

Stay tuned for Part 2 where I examine the detail of flight routes & demand.