When a fifth airline enters a well-traveled route, the promise of competition arrives before its full rewards do. Israir's launch on the Tel Aviv–New York corridor generated $8 million in bookings within hours, signaling genuine public appetite — yet a careful survey of fares across six travel windows reveals that no single carrier holds the price advantage consistently, and the gap between the cheapest and most expensive option can exceed $1,000 for the same journey. Competition, it turns out, does not automatically produce clarity; it produces complexity, and the traveler who assumes a new e