LATAM announced today that they intend to add 3x weekly flights to Tel Aviv by the end of 2018. Subject to regulatory approval, the airline plans to operate the flight from Santiago to Sao Paulo to Tel Aviv. Presumably the airline will use a 787 to operate the route.
The flight will cover a distance of ~8,200 miles, including the ~1,600 miles between Santiago and Sao Paulo, and the 6,600 miles between Sao Paulo and Tel Aviv. Interestingly the stop in Sao Paulo adds one mile compared to the direct air distance of the route. When the route launches, it will be the only nonstop flight between South America and Israel.
Interestingly just a couple of months ago Aerolineas Argentinas and EL AL announced a new codeshare agreement. As part of this, EL AL will codeshare on Aerolineas Argentinas’ flights between Buenos Aires and Spain, and Aerolineas Argentinas will codeshare on EL AL’s flights between Spain and Tel Aviv. So that didn’t really add any new link that wasn’t there before, but at least made the process of ticketing and traveling on such a reservation easier.
It has been great to see LATAM’s recent longhaul expansion, as they just added new flights to both Boston and Rome, and now we should see a link to Tel Aviv as well.
What do you make of LATAM’s new proposed route to Tel Aviv?
(Tip of the hat to The Millennial Traveler & David)
Makes sense, there is a rather large jewish community in Latin America. Arguably also in Argentina and Uruguay, but I guess Latam will make sure they can connect via GRU.
Any chance they could deploy one of TAM's GRU-based A350s on the route instead of a LAN 787?
Great news! When I travelled from GRU to TLV more than a decade ago we flew Iberia to Madrid and then onto TLV. This is a great route now to have.
I am a trabel agent in Brazil and this route is planned to start only in december 2018.
First South American Carrier to fly to Asia since Varig dropped the Sao Paulo-L.A.-Tokyo route in 2006, that's awesome!! I only wish that it could be operated by LATAM Brasil, given it is operated by LATAM Chile because LATAM BR does not have the correct airplane to do so (767 do not have range and the A350/77W are too big for a starting route) and the flight is too long for Brazilian crews to operate...
First South American Carrier to fly to Asia since Varig dropped the Sao Paulo-L.A.-Tokyo route in 2006, that's awesome!! I only wish that it could be operated by LATAM Brasil, given it is operated by LATAM Chile because LATAM BR does not have the correct airplane to do so (767 do not have range and the A350/77W are too big for a starting route) and the flight is too long for Brazilian crews to operate - given the new Brazilian legislation. So nice to see the return of Brazil-Israel flights!!
About the arab country ban on Israel flights, i think the ban only applies to Israeli aircraft, am I correct? Ethiopian overflies Sudan on its ADD-TLV flights.
As someone who travels frequently on the TLV - SCL route this is GREAT news! Yay! Thx Latam!
A while ago - it was mentioned that EL-AL was contemplating a direct route to Buenos Aires using their new 787s. I read no additional info since then.
The flight path is not the one to be used. Flights to ot from Israel can not fly over arab countries, including those in north africa. Therefore flight will be way longer and will be operated over Spain. Still, great news
Can't wait to start this ticket in SYD or AKL
what an exotic routing That would be to get from Oceania to Israel.
@nathan I likewise appreciate the news and content topics - I am not disputing the ideas for posts. But I am sometimes dismayed at the quality of the editing, it's just poor form. It's not just Ben's posts, as has been noted by other commenters Daniels posts are quite bad too. It's just some constructive feedback, just be nice to see some care taken and checking before putting posts up.
^ I was gonna say something about that. It should be interesting how the routing over Africa works for this flight.
The routing over Africa is problematic since flights to Israel are banned to fly over Libya or Sudan. The route should be longer, such as flying twords Spain and then over the Mediterranean sea.
i disagree. there's nothing wrong with Ben's grammar and contradictions and its far from atrocious. I for one and many others appreciate Ben's quick up-to-date news. Sometimes there's not enough time to get all the news out fast enough. So what if there is a small typo once in a while. The quality of his reports and pictures is second to none. Stop nitpicking.
As to LATAM'S t TLV flight launch ? What a great idea.
@matt @jason
The Latam flight connects in GRU.
EL AL has a codeshare with Aerolíneas Argentinas on flight from MAD and BCn to EZE.
I enjoy reading this blog for the information but the editing is atrocious. Full of spelling errors, bad grammar and contradictions - really does give a poor impression.
You write in paragraph 1 they plan to do Santiago- Buenos Aires- Tel Aviv, then in subsequent paragraphs and the map you write that São Paulo is the stop. Which is it?
Is it operating via EZE or GRU?
Sorry guys, it's via Sao Paulo. My mistake.