El Al will roll out a ‘no-frills’ ticket on its scheduled flights from Israel, where tickets from £121 will be supplemented with charges for extras like meals and baggage.
Tickets are already being sold on the maiden budget flight from Tel Aviv to Rome in August.
But London flyers thinking of a low-cost El Al flight to Beijing or Bangkok without a meal will be disappointed: the airline is only offering its no-frills fares on short-haul flights.
It will make the airline more competitive with other budget airlines like easyJet, Ryanair and Jet2, but standard class, business and first class inclusive fares will still be available, with the discount seats concentrated in one area of the plane.
The airline will test-drive the scheme on short-haul routes to European cities, but the company’s initial plan to offer routes which were entirely budget fares will not currently go ahead, El Al chief executive Haim Romano explained.
It has not yet been confirmed whether London is included in El Al’s no-frills tickets plan.
