Israel’s national carrier, El Al Airlines, has announced it will operate three round-trip test flights direct from Tel Aviv to Melbourne, Australia sometime in April and May 2020.
Tickets are now on sale for the flight, which is scheduled to depart from Tel Aviv on April 2, April 23 and May 14. Return flights are set to depart from Melbourne on April 4, April 25 and May 16.
Round-trip tickets from Tel Aviv will start from $1,199, about the same price as a ticket to New York City.
The flight from Ben-Gurion International Airport to Tullamarine Airport in Melbourne is expected to take 16 hours and 15 minutes. The return flight is expected to be longer due to head winds: 17 hours and 45 minutes.
The route will be served by the airline’s new fleet of giant Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft. It will be the longest route to be carried out by the airline thus far.
Currently passengers who fly to Australia at present must take a connecting flight to Bangkok or Hong Kong.
El Al also announced new routes to Chicago, Tokyo, Dublin and Düsseldorf in 2020, and launched non-stop flights to Nice, San Francisco, Manchester and Las Vegas this year as well.