US Airways soars over financial crisis to launch new route

Direct Philadelphia-Tel Aviv flights to begin in July 2009; Tourism Ministry expects US-Israel travel to grow by 300,000 annually.

By SHARON WROBEL
us airways 88 (photo credit: )
us airways 88
(photo credit: )
Despite growing fears of a deep global economic slowdown and uncertainty shaking global financial markets, US Airways, the fifth largest carrier in the US, is keeping to its original plan to inaugurate the first Philadelphia-Tel Aviv route in July next year. "You cannot just plan for failure. Otherwise, we would have to stop every new route plan because of oil prices or other market changes," Eric Mathieu, managing director of international sales at US Airways, said at a press conference in Tel Aviv last week. "We plan a new route 18 months ahead. At the time, the market situation was different. We looked at adding new routes considering China flying to Beijing or Israel flying to Tel Aviv. We decided against China as our next destination and in favor of Israel, while postponing the Beijing route until 2010." Tel Aviv will become the 21st transatlantic destination served by US Airways from Philadelphia and the first to the Middle East. The 5,700-mile flight will be US Airways's longest nonstop segment, and will be made by long-range Airbus A330-200 aircraft offering 20 business class seats and 238 economy seats. The planes are slated for delivery in the spring of 2009. Starting July 1, return flights will depart from Ben-Gurion Airport before midnight and land in Philadelphia early the next morning. Flights departing from Philadelphia will leave in the evening and arrive in the afternoon the next day. "The inauguration of US Airways's new Philadelphia-Tel Aviv route is a sign of confidence in our attractive and stable tourist destination," said Tourism Ministry Director-General Shaul Zemach. "For the past two years, the government has invested a lot in a widespread campaign to secure and increase interest in our destination. We are now seeing the results of these efforts, and the confidence of major players in our destination, even in the most difficult period of the US economy." Zemach added, though, that the ministry will need to work harder to keep foreign airlines in Israel. "Until now, there have been no cancellations of flight routes by foreign carriers," said Zemach, hinting that this could change. US Airways formed in 2005 from the merger of America West and the former US Airways, is expanding internationally as many US airlines are cutting capacity, mainly on domestic routes, as they have been hit by high fuel costs. Although fuel costs have recently come down again, the global economic slowdown and an expected downturn in private consumption is poised to have an impact on the profitability of carriers. "We are launching our new Philadelphia-Tel Aviv route in July in peak season and long after the US elections. We also believe that next summer the US economy could bounce back," said Mathieu. US Airways, which represents 12 percent of the total US market employs 35,000 aviation staff worldwide and flies to 84 cities in the US, four cities in Canada, 20 destinations in Europe, and 10 cities in the Caribbean and Latin America. US Airways will become the third US carrier to fly nonstop flights from the US to Israel. Continental Airlines flies two flights a day from Newark Liberty while Delta operates daily flights from both JFK in New York and Atlanta. In addition, El Al Israel Airlines operates 37 weekly flights to the US in peak season and 22 weekly flights in low season. Israir Airlines Ltd. recently suspended its route to New York because it was not economically viable. "A new player serving the US destination will bring more competition, higher demand and hopefully bring down prices," said Zemach. "We are expecting that passenger traffic on US flights to Israel will grow from 700,000 to one million annually."