Whoever said competition wasn't healthy clearly knew nothing about the price of flights to Israel or the impact of the economic downturn on the travel business.
Until comparatively recently, the London-Tel Aviv route was neatly shared by BA and El Al, who charged roughly similar fares for roughly similar dates.

Then, along came bmi, with its business-friendly service and - from this month, - a second daily flights from Heathrow to Ben-Gurion, and it must have dawned on Israel's national carrier that they might need to actually become a bit more competitive if they wanted to hang on to their business share from the UK.

As we have seen, the first move - following the demise of Thomson's Tel Aviv route from Luton - was to introduce more or less daily flights from Luton (so convenient for the Jewish heartland of north London) to Tel Aviv, with a lower price introductory fare.
And today, the airline has announced a new instant purchase economy flight from £267 return from Heathrow to B-G, and from £254 from Luton to B-G - both fares cheaper, in real terms, than in 2005. The fares are for travel only up to July 3 (and may be booked up to the date of travel), but for everyone who wants to avoid mid-summer, and isn't tied by school holidays, it is very encouraging news. Now, if only Israeli hoteliers could be a bit more competitive, life in Planet Travel would be perfect.