Delta Air Lines and El Al have signed an agreement with frequent flier benefits expected to start in early 2024.
Delta and El Al will codeshare flights between the United States and Israel, and El Al will likely put its code on select Delta flights to feed its flights to Israel. Frequent flier program members will soon be able to earn and redeem miles on each other’s flights.
You can access Delta here and El Al here.
It is unclear from the release if there will be frequent flier status-related benefits besides merely earning and redeeming miles.
Delta’s and El Al’s Press Release:
Delta Air Lines and EL AL Israel Airlines to launch strategic partnership
Delta Air Lines and EL AL Israel Airlines have signed an agreement to launch a strategic partnership that will offer more convenient connections for customers flying between the United States and Israel. The airlines will implement reciprocal codeshare and frequent flyer benefits, including the ability to earn and redeem miles across both carriers.
Initially, customers connecting onto Delta or EL AL’s services will be able to check in for their entire journey, with boarding passes issued and bags checked through to their destination. Delta offers up to 200 same-day connections from Tel Aviv via its U.S. gateways Atlanta, Boston, and New York-JFK while EL AL offers customers additional nonstop service to Tel Aviv from Boston and New York-JFK, alongside their Los Angeles, Miami, and Newark service. In due course, both carriers will add their respective codes on each other’s operated flights.
“Working closely with EL AL will further strengthen Delta’s connection to Israel by offering more customers unrivalled access to destinations across the U.S.,” said Matteo Curcio, Delta’s Senior Vice President for Europe, Middle East, Africa and India. “Enhanced partnerships are integral to our long-term strategy to better connect Delta customers around the world.”
Shlomi Zafrany EL AL’s Vice President Commercial and Industry Affairs said: “We are delighted to offer our customers new ways to discover exciting destinations on both sides of the Atlantic through our partnership with Delta.” Highlighting the value of the partnership with Delta he added: “This partnership marks another important milestone in our long-term strategy and offers our customers unparalleled service.”
El Al’s press release in Hebrew slightly differs from the jointly issued English one. The Hebrew one states that the agreement will go live in early 2024.
UPDATE: Here’s a Google translation of El Al’s disclosure to the Tel Aviv stock exchange:
The company is honored to announce that on June 29, 2023, the company signed with Delta Air Lines (“Delta”) a binding agreement in principle (“the agreement”) for strategic cooperation in the field of passenger transportation within the framework of which the company and Delta (together: the “airlines”) will enter into several arrangements Commercial, among them, a CodeShare agreement according to which each airline will have the opportunity to market seats on the other airline’s flights; A club sharing agreement between the airlines, which will mutually enable the accumulation and realization of benefits for the club customers of the two airlines; and a lounge agreement that will allow the airline passengers who are entitled to have access to the lounges operated by the airlines (“the commercial arrangements” and together with the “cooperation” agreement).
The cooperation will apply to flights on routes operated by the airlines, including the direct routes of the airlines between Israel and the United States in both directions; On some routes from Israel through Europe to a variety of destinations in the United States, in both directions; and in addition on onward flight routes from airline destinations in the United States to other destinations operated by Delta within the United States and the American continent; Everything is in accordance with the agreements of the parties in the commercial arrangements as formulated and subject to the approvals of the competent authorities in Israel and the United States, as the need arises.
The cooperation will allow the company, among other things, to increase the supply of seats to its destinations in the United States, expand its route network, improve the value proposition for a wider range of customers, as well as increase the range of services provided to the company’s luxury passengers.
In addition, as part of the agreement, and as much as the company is interested in it, Delta will make reasonable efforts to assist the company in joining the airline alliance to which Delta belongs – SkyTeam.
The agreement establishes common principles that will apply to the relationship between the airlines in the commercial arrangements, as well as limitations on the company from being associated with similar arrangements with airlines based in the United States, all in accordance with the terms and deadlines agreed upon.
The parties agreed to commit to the agreement for a period not less than five years from the date of implementation of the code sharing agreement or the club sharing agreement, whichever is later, after which each party will have the option to terminate with a 6-month advance notice (for any reason).
The signing of the agreement with Delta and the cooperation constitute a milestone in the implementation of the company’s strategic plan, in its growth and in the expansion of the core areas of its activity, as detailed in section 8.15 of the report describing the corporation’s business in the company’s periodic report for December 31, 2022 (reference number: 2023-01-019483),In the company’s estimation, the cooperation with Delta is not expected to significantly affect the company’s business results. The aforementioned regarding the effect of the cooperation, including the company’s engagement in the aforementioned commercial arrangements, constitute forward-looking information, within the meaning of the Securities Law, 1968-5578 based on the company’s current estimates, where these estimates depend to a large extent on Delta and third parties and their activities, as well as In the event of events beyond the company’s control.
Conclusion
The question that must be on everyone’s lips is that does this mean that El Al’s goal would be to join the SkyTeam alliance, as it is not aligned with any of the three currently.
Nothing on Delta’s or El Al’s releases indicates this would be in the works, but surely El Al would benefit from alliance-wide cooperation. SkyTeam already has two member airlines in the Middle East; Lebanon-based MEA and Saudia from Saudi Arabia.
UPDATE: El Al’s disclosure to the Tel Aviv stock exchange indicates that something may be brewing with the airline and SkyTeam, and Delta will assist El Al if the airline is interested in joining.
