Israel's flag carrier to resume flights to Moscow after Kazakhstan plane crash

El Al, Israel's national airline, will resume regular Tel Aviv-Moscow flights starting May 1, Israel's Ministry of Tourism said. 

Photo: commons.wikimedia.org by DME Airport, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Domodedovo Airport

Flights will operate seven times a week: once daily from Monday to Wednesday and twice daily on Thursdays and Sundays. In Moscow, flights will be handled by Domodedovo Airport.

The flights will be operated using Boeing 737-900 aircraft, which can accommodate up to 175 passengers. The travel time is approximately five hours.

El Al suspended flights to Moscow in late December, citing "events in Russian airspace." The company referred to the crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) aircraft in Kazakhstan.

The crash occurred on December 25, 2024, resulting in the deaths of 38 of the 67 people on board.

The Kremlin noted that the Azerbaijani plane made several landing attempts in Grozny, which was under attack by Ukrainian drones at the time when Russian air defenses were active. Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized to his Azeri counterpart Aliyev for the incident.

El Al initially restricted flights to Russia for a week but later extended the suspension until the end of March following a comprehensive assessment of the situation.

Details

EL AL Israel Airlines Ltd. (Hebrew: אל על נתיבי אוויר לישראל בע״מ), trading as EL AL (Hebrew: אל על, "Upwards", "To the Skies", or "Skywards", stylized as ELעל‎ALאל‎; Arabic: إل-عال) is the flag carrier of Israel. Since its inaugural flight from Geneva to Tel Aviv in September 1948, the airline has grown to serve almost 50 destinations, operating scheduled domestic and international services and cargo flights within Israel, and to Europe, the Middle East, the Americas, Africa, and the Far East, from its main base in Ben Gurion Airport. El Al is the only commercial airline to equip its planes with missile defense systems to protect its planes against surface-to-air missiles, and is considered one of the world's most secure airlines, thanks to its stringent security procedures, both on the ground and on board its aircraft. Although it has been the target of many attempted hijackings and terror attacks, only one El Al flight has ever been hijacked; that incident did not result in any fatalities.