Watching easyJet tiptoe back into Israel with all the enthusiasm of a cat approaching a bathtub would almost be amusing if the price list didn’t look like satire. The airline is marketing itself as a low-cost carrier, yet the fares they’ve posted for spring 2026 read more like the premium column of a full-service European airline that at least pretends to offer comfort. It’s hard not to wonder who exactly they think they’re fooling.
The Tel Aviv–London route—normally the bread and butter of low-cost competition—starts at $562, and that’s before you’re allowed to bring so much as a laptop bag. Once you tack on a basic carry-on and seat selection, you’re adding $85 each way, and a checked bag is another $102. Suddenly that “cheap flight” is pushing the price of British Airways, except BA actually gives you a bag, a seat, and, you know, dignity. On Amsterdam, the situation is even more absurd: $823 base fare without a carry-on. By the time you add the usual “low-cost extras,” you’re basically subsidizing their entire route re-launch.
And Milan—normally one of easyJet’s competitive sweet spots—is $549 with the same insult-to-injury upsells. For a so-called budget airline, these prices feel like a bait-and-switch without the bait.
What’s especially galling is that nothing easyJet offers justifies the premium. No checked bag, no seat selection, no flexibility, no service tier that resembles legacy carriers—only the same orange-plastic aesthetic and elbow-to-rib seating density as before, now sold at nearly double the price. They’re essentially hoping customers don’t notice they’re paying full-fare prices for a low-fare experience.
Perhaps easyJet is counting on “pent-up demand.” Perhaps they assume Israelis will pay anything for direct European flights after months of uncertainty. Or perhaps they simply got comfortable not flying here and want to charge a risk premium for their own hesitancy.
But the core absurdity remains: why would anyone with a functioning sense of value fly a low-cost carrier at regular-carrier prices? When the math no longer works, the model collapses. And right now, the math doesn’t just fail—it mocks the whole idea of low-cost aviation.
If easyJet wants a triumphant return, maybe they should start by remembering what made people choose them in the first place.
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