El Al’s Sun d’Or to launch Belgrade service from April
El Al Israel Airlines’ leisure brand Sun d’Or will commence flights to Belgrade this coming summer season with the carrier to launch a three weekly service between Tel Aviv and the Serbian capital. Flights will commence on April 1, and initially run twice per week, on Mondays and Fridays, before increasing to three weekly from May 7. Services will be maintained with a mix of wet-leased 180-seat Airbus A320 aircraft and the airline’s own 189-seat Boeing 737-800 jets in an all-economy class layout. Further flight details can be found here. Tickets can now be purchased through El Al’s website. Sun d’Or is present in the former Yugoslavia, operating this coming summer to Ljubljana, Zagreb and Tivat.
El Al last maintained flights to Belgrade in late 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic, when Serbia and Israel created a travel bubble for Israeli nationals, enabling them to visit Serbia without restrictions. Although the travel corridor itself was short-lived, it saw Israeli carriers maintain several daily flights to the Serbian capital. Currently, Tel Aviv and Belgrade are linked through a three weekly Arkia service. The airline has also scheduled flights on the route throughout the coming summer season. El Al's Vice President for Commercial and Industry Affairs, Shlomi Zafrany, said, “Among Israelis there is a growing need to get out and come up for air by traveling around the world. However, there is a strong negative effect on incoming tourism. We estimate that it will continue into 2024. We do see that there is segmented inbound tourism - family visits, Jewish communities from around the world, new immigrants, but it is likely that we will not see groups of Christian pilgrims coming to Jerusalem”.
Air Serbia suspended operations to Tel Aviv last October as the security situation in Israel began to deteriorate. Although it initially scheduled its return for December and then January, it has now deferred the route’s resumption until April 1, when it plans to restore four weekly flights between the two cities. The ongoing war in Gaza has dramatically changed Israel's tourism and aviation sector with almost all foreign airlines having halted flights to Tel Aviv. Only a handful of airlines including Ethiopian Airlines, Etihad Airways, Flydubai, Uzbekistan Airways, Hainan Airlines, Azimuth Airline and Red Wings, have continued flying to Israel. The situation is gradually changing. This week, Lufthansa Group carriers including Lufthansa itself, as well as Swiss and Austrian Airlines resumed flights to Tel Aviv, while Air France, Bulgaria Air, LOT, Blue Bird, Vueling, Transavia and TUS Airways have all announced they are resuming services this month. However, a number of carriers are yet to schedule their return onto the Israeli market. They include easyJet, Wizz Air, Ryanair, Delta, United Airlines and American Airlines.
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