UK citizens attempting to flee Israel face flight struggles

UK citizens trying to fly home from Israel face a struggle to book flights, with options from Tel Aviv either cancelled, fully booked or only have a few spare seats costing more than £1,200 each.

EasyJet usually serves Gatwick, Luton and Manchester Airports from the Israeli city but has paused operations on those routes. Wizz Air, which normally connects Israel with Gatwick and Luton, has also suspended those flights.

Virgin Atlantic has cancelled one of its two daily return flights between Tel Aviv and Heathrow until at least Wednesday.

Its other daily return flights are still operating but there is no availability on its UK-bound services until next week.

British Airways is continuing to run flights between Tel Aviv and Heathrow, with adjusted departure times.

People wanting to book a seat on the next available flight are being charged £1,204 to travel on Wednesday – though that is more than treble the price of a flight on the same route a week later, when the cost is just £385.

Israeli flag carrier El Al has no availability on flights to the UK until next week. Several airlines have introduced flexible booking policies, enabling customers to change their travel dates free of charge.

OpsGroup, an international membership organisation for pilots and other aviation staff, said today that “Israel is now an active war zone” and that “all lessons learned regarding civil operations in conflict zones over the last nine years since MH17 need to be applied”.

BA and Virgin Atlantic have adjusted their operations so that crews no longer need to “night stop” in Israel: their flights are timed to depart from London Heathrow shortly after 8am, arrive in Tel Aviv in mid-afternoon and return after less than two hours on the ground.

On 7 October, the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel, with its fighters entering communities near the Gaza Strip, killing hundreds of residents and taking dozens of hostages.

The UK government has not provided an estimate on how many UK citizens are in Israel, however a travel industry source said the number of UK tourists in Israel is low.

Israel’s ministry of tourism said it is “committed to ensuring that all tourists visiting Israel are safe and informed”.

It added that it is operating a “hotline via WhatsApp for tourists” on +972 55 972 6931.