El Al opens bookings on non-stop Melbourne trial service

El Al is to operate at least three non-stop services to Melbourne over the course of April-May next year, as part of a test of ultra-long-haul operations. The airline’s reservations system reveals that it will start operating the LY87 service from Tel Aviv to the Australian city on 2 April 2020. El Al will use Boeing 787-9s on the route. Its 787-9 fleet is configured with 282 seats. It has scheduled another similar service, under the same flight number, for 23 April and a third on 14 May. El Al lists the duration of the flights as 16h 15min. The airline is offering basic fares of $973 to $1,143. The airline had indicated towards the end of November that it planned to test a non-stop Melbourne route with 787s.<br/>