Two years ago this week El Al said it was shuttering direct service to Canada. Will it return?

The CJN Daily with Ellin Bessner

Like the Taylor Swift song about her ex-boyfriend, El Al airlines is likely “never, ever, getting back together” with Canada, at least not in the form of direct non-stop El Al flights with the Star of David logo on its planes. Two years ago on June 21, 2022 the Israeli carrier announced it was shuttering direct service to Toronto. After 40 years of service to Canada, the Toronto office was closed, 30 employees were laid off. The Toronto airport infrastructure was abandoned. But El Al’s new senior vice president for the Americas, Simon Newton-Smith, isn’t completely abandoning the Canadian market, which he calls “a huge contributor to our overall sales”. He wants to figure out why El Al couldn’t make money here despite flights being full, at least before the COVID pandemic ravaged international air travel. Newton-Smith came to Toronto recently, on June 5, for his first Canadian visit since being appointed to the new job, which was, luckily or unluckily for him, right after the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Needless to say, he started work just as the war in Gaza combined with the tensions on Israel’s northern border with Hezbollah to decimate foreign tourism to Israel. El Al, though, has reported record profits so far this year–as other international airlines stopped flying, including Air Canada. Now, as the summer travel season gets into high gear, Simon Newton-Smith joins The CJN Daily to share his plans for El Al’s Canadian operations.

What we talked about:

• Read more about El Al closing its Canadian operations in 2022, in The CJN.
• Hear the people on the last El Al flight leaving Toronto on Oct 27, 2022 on The CJN Daily.

Credits:

The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Zachary Kauffman is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine. We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To subscribe to this podcast, please watch this video. Donate to The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt by clicking here. Hear why The CJN is important to me.