Direct Flight Connects Silicon Valley To Silicon Wadi

 April 1, 2016 |  The first direct flight from Tel Aviv to San Francisco will take off today, inaugurating a new thrice-weekly route by United Airlines using Boeing Dreamliner 787-9 passenger jets with 252 seats, including 48 in business class. The flights will take off from Tel Aviv at 1:00 AM on Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays, and land in San Francisco at 6:00 AM of the same day. Return flights will take off from San Francisco’s airport at 8:00 PM on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays, and land in Israel at 8:00 PM on the following day (all the times are for Israel). The westerly flights will take 15 hours and the easterly flights 14 hours. Ticket prices will be from $1,000 for tourist class and $5,000 for business class. The main target market for these flights is businessmen in high-tech, as San Francisco airport serves the Silicon Valley, just an hour south of the city by car. “The alternatives currently available to flyers from Tel Aviv to San Francisco are 20-27-hour flights with a connection via Europe or the US,” said United Airlines Israel managing director Avi Friedman. “The route we are launching is a competitive declaration with an emphasis on the flight time and convenient flight hours in both directions.” United Airlines has been operating in Israel since 1999, formerly under the Continental Airlines brand name, before that was merged with United Airlines in 2010. The company’s Tel Aviv branch has 44 employees, which Friedman has headed since it was founded. In addition to the San Francisco route, the company operates flights from Tel Aviv to New York twice a day. In total, United Airlines and related airline United Express operate 5,000 flights daily on six continents through 342 airports.