Israel’s El Al Airlines Will Begin Nonstop Flights to San Francisco

January 3, 2018 | El Al Israel Airlines, Israel’s national airline, announced it will begin nonstop flights between Tel Aviv and San Francisco later in the year, according to a report in Reuters. The carrier said it will begin flying the route three times a week with the Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft acquired by the company in August 2017. The San Francisco Airport is also about 30 minutes by car from Silicon Valley, home of many of the world’s largest technology companies including Apple, Cisco, Google Intel, and HP. Silicon Valley is in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay area in Northern California. “San Francisco is an important strategic city for El Al. Our target is to take the business segment,” El Al chief executive David Maimon said. El Al began to receive a delivery of 16 new 787 aircraft to replace its current long-haul fleet. The aircraft will continue to be delivered through 2020. Reuters says the company is “facing increased competition from low-cost carriers” including United Airlines, which began flights between the two cities in 2016. In November, the carrier began nonstop flights to Miami from Ben Gurion Airport.