Virgin Atlantic has announced it will fly from Heathrow to Tel Aviv from September.

Six months after dropping its route from London to Dubai, the airline announced a daily route to Ben Gurion Airport, which will also be its shortest flight from the UK.

Shai Weiss, Virgin Atlantic’s chief executive, described the city as a “fantastic opportunity”, given Israel’s “booming economy as one of the world’s leading tech hubs”.

He added: “We also see a significant opportunity to increase competition in the US – Tel Aviv market, using the strength of our trans-Atlantic Joint Venture with Delta to offer customers from Tel Aviv a wide range of US destinations connecting through London Heathrow including New York and San Francisco.

“I’m also thrilled to introduce this new destination to our leisure customers and I know it’s somewhere they’ll love to visit.”

El Al, Israel’s national airline, currently flies from both Heathrow and Luton – with the latter also serving as a hub for short-haul budget airlines Wizz Air and EasyJet.

Arkia, a budget Israeli carrier, flies between Stansted and Tel Aviv.

The new service is partly aimed at connecting passengers to US airports served by Virgin Atlantic and the carrier which owns 49 per cent of it, Delta Airlines.

Israel’s tourism minister, Yariv Levin, said: “The entry of one of the world’s leading airlines into Israel is another expression of confidence in the Israel tourism product.

“The revolution that we have implemented in the Ministry of Tourism in recent years is bearing fruit with record-breaking numbers of incoming tourism to Israel.

“The new flights will be integrated with the marketing campaign in Europe, which highlights Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. I am convinced that, with the entry of Virgin Atlantic into Israel, we will see continued growth in incoming tourism from the UK.”

Virgin Atlantic tickets will go on sale from February 25.