EL AL Resuming Flights With 50-Person Cap, Lottery System

On June 13, 2025, we saw EL AL suspend operations, and even move its planes out of Israel, in light of the conflict with Iran. This was pretty significant, as it was the first time since October 2023 that EL AL canceled service for any material amount of time.

There’s now an interesting update, as the airline will be very gradually resuming service, in line with government regulations…

EL AL will start operating limited “rescue” flights

EL AL intends to resume outbound flights from Israel as of Monday, June 23, 2025. However, the airline won’t be operating its regular schedule. Instead, the airline will operate a very limited number of routes, flying to eight destinations. Destinations will include Athens (ATH), Bangkok (BKK), Larnaca (LCA), London (LHR), Los Angeles (LAX), New York (JFK), Paris (CDG), and Rome (FCO).

Beyond these special flights, the airline has otherwise canceled flights through June 27, 2025, and has closed bookings for flights through July 15, 2025.

For these upcoming flights, there will be a strict limit of 50 passengers per flight when departing Tel Aviv, regardless of the destination. I don’t actually see an explanation anywhere for that policy, so does anyone know? Is it because these passengers are going to get even stricter than usual security screenings, or…?

That cap doesn’t seem very efficient. The only time I otherwise recall seeing something like that was in Australia during the pandemic, due to the cap on quarantine accommodation.

Passengers have to register their interest for flights

With only 50 seats per flight and a very limited schedule, how is EL AL prioritizing demand? Well, the airline has opened a registration page on its website, where travelers can express interest in taking one of these flights.

There are different forms depending on whether you’re an Israeli stranded abroad, or are in Israel and want to depart. The government estimates that 40,000 foreign tourists are currently in the country, while 100,000 Israelis are currently abroad.

Priority for tickets is being given to life-saving, humanitarian, and national security cases. Those who had tickets on canceled EL AL flights also have priority. There are some added restrictions for passengers, like that Israelis traveling abroad on one of these flights can’t return within 30 days.

I can’t help but wonder how much these tickets will cost, given the cap of 50 passengers per flight. Will everyone just be charged five or six times as much, is the government subsidizing these flights, or…?

Bottom line

EL AL is resuming operations as of Monday, June 23, 2025, after a roughly 10 day suspension. The airline isn’t resuming its regular schedule, though, and is instead operating a limited number of flights for which it gets government approval. Each of these flights will be capped at 50 passengers, for reasons that aren’t entirely clear to me.

What do you make of EL AL’s service resumption?