Bernard Benny Berger

Bernard Benny Berger – Kvetch of today

By Steve

Posted on April 2, 2016

Bernard Benny Berger – Kvetch of today

Below is the press release of United Airlines. In one way I am pleased to see this, this link is long overdue, particularly as Israel is the 2nd major I/T centre in the World after Santa Clara County, CA. However it should be noted that Aer Lingus has for some time now operated a Dublin to SFO service, with Ireland also being a significant I/T hub and demand pre non stop service from Ireland to SFO was actually less than from Israel.

El Al has now placed an order for a new Boeing 787 fleet, partly to replace the ageing 767 and 747 fleet, but hopefully if the 777´s are retained the long haul fleet can grow. So whilst I AM happy that this time saving and useful link has indeed been launched, however I would have been even happier had El Al been the ones operating it. If indeed they have new long haul route aspirations, this would have been one of the obvious ones and it is a shame that they have lost this opportunity. United Airlines has a hub at SFO Airport so can connect passengers onto other Western US destinations through there such as Portland, OR; Las Vegas, NV; San Diego, CA; and Honolulu, HI.

In my view El Al needs to react quicker to new route opportunities otherwise they will find that should they indeed over the next years increase the size of their long haul fleet, the windows of commercial opportunity will continue to close, both in the Americas and in Asia.

El Al also established UP to take over what I imagine to be routes yielding a lower than system average fare; Kiev, Budapest, Prague, Berlin and re-opened a former El Al route to nearby Larnaca. UP styles itself as a “low cost” airline, but to me the major low cost aspects is that UP 737-800 aircraft have 180 seats instead of the 142 and it has a buy on board service and checked luggage fee but staff costs the same as El Al. I recall asking some years ago why they could not establish a true low cost subsidiary with very different contracts of employment as Air Canada has done with its Air Canada Rouge, Singapore Airlines has done with its Scoot and Qantas has done with its Jetstar but recall equally that I was told (if correct) that the employment law does not allow this. If this was indeed true, more particularly if it remains true it will gift more and more passengers to the European low cost operators.

Onto the issue of Haredi passengers refusing to sit next to women. Surely in I/T savvy Israel there is a technological way from preventing this from ever happening; with web check in, kiosk check in at TLV Airport and at manual conventional check in at all El Al airports, through travel agency distribution systems and also with that small number of people who still book with the airline call centre.

Finally on my last Israel trip, I had booked on a through El Al ticket Lisbon-Barcelona-Tel Aviv-Brussels-Lisbon but when trying at Ben Gurion to check in for the last two flights, the check in agent told me that for some reason she could not get the system to through check the bag or issue an onward boarding pass and did not know why, I was therefore left “stranded” at Brussels Airport. When I arrived there, the reason was apparant, TAP Portugal was on strike. Whenever I have tried before to through check onto a second flight that had been cancelled due to a strike or technical reasons, the airline checking me in for the first flight ALWAYS knew about the problem and would through check me to my final destination via another connecting point. No marks for I/T, initiative or even common sense to the El Al staff that day I am afraid to say.

So in conclusion on many fronts much room for improvement.

And please, please let us not read in the future about some non-Israeli air carrier taking an initiative that El Al themselves indeed should have taken.

Bernard “Benny” Berger:

Passionate World traveller, connoisseur of global cultures, politics, cuisine, lifestyles, been on all continents except Antarctica, loves political literature, films, theatre, Celtic, C & W and Israeli music.

From Silicon Valley to Silicon Wadi – Nonstop on United Airlines Beginning Today

Source: United Airlines

31/03/2016

United Airlines will inaugurate its newest intercontinental nonstop service with great fanfare this evening, linking San Francisco and Tel Aviv with the first-ever nonstop flights between the two cities.

United flight 954 will depart San Francisco International Airport at 8 p.m. and arrive in Tel Aviv tomorrow at 8:10 p.m. Flight time to Tel Aviv aboard United’s most advanced aircraft, the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, will be 14 hours 10 minutes. United will operate service to Tel Aviv from San Francisco three times weekly on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.

On the return, United flight 955 will depart Tel Aviv at 12:55 a.m. on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays, arriving in San Francisco at 6 a.m. the same day (all times local). Flight times will be 15 hours five minutes.

The service will operate for several weeks in June and July with Boeing 777 aircraft.

“Our new service between San Francisco and Tel Aviv is a direct response to customer demand,” said Dave Hilfman, United’s senior vice president of Worldwide Sales. “Our customers told us they wanted convenient, direct flights between these two markets. We took their needs to heart, considered thousands of customers who petitioned for the service and identified an opportunity to serve a significant customer base of high-tech-related business traveling between the Bay Area and Silicon Valley and Tel Aviv.”

San Francisco is a key center for Israeli business travel and one of the most popular U.S. leisure destinations for Israelis. From its San Francisco hub, United operates nearly 280 daily flights to more than 90 destinations in North America, Latin America, Europe and the Asia/Pacific region.

“We congratulate United for its new route between San Francisco and Israel,” said Anat Ben Yosef, Consul, Israel Ministry of Tourism. “Not only will United’s service be extremely convenient for tourists traveling to Israel from northern California and the Pacific Northwest — but it will also be a boon for the vast numbers of travelers in the high-tech industry who virtually commute between the Silicon Valleys of California and Israel. Last year was a record year for tourism from the United States to Israel, and we expect this year to be even better.”

United in Israel

United has served Israel for longer than any other U.S. airline operating flights to Tel Aviv, having offered service continuously since 1999. The airline currently offers twice-daily Boeing 777 nonstop flights between its New York hub, Newark Liberty International Airport, and Tel Aviv.

Bernard Benny Berger – Kvetch of today