Hotel in Antalya, Turkey. No more Israelis?
Photo: Ilan Halperin
June sees 45% drop in travels to Turkey
Israel Airports Authority reports sharp decline in number of passengers who traveled to from Ben-Gurion Airport last month following flotilla affair. According to data, travel to country actually increased by 14% during the first half of 2010
Following May's flotilla incident
which led Israelis to cancel vacations in Turkey, the number of passengers traveling from Ben-Gurion International Airport to Turkey declined by 45% in June as compared to the same month in 2009, according to data published by the Israel Airports Authority, Calcalist reported Tuesday.
Some 42,800 passengers flew in and out of Ben-Gurion Airport to various destinations in Turkey this past June, as compared to 77,500 people in June 2009.
During the first half of 2010, there was an increase in the number of Israelis traveling to Turkey each month, compared to the equivalent period the previous year.
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In a distribution based on destination, traffic from Ben-Gurion International Airport to Antalya on charter flights decreased by 47% as compared to June 2009, while a decline of more than 21% was recorded in regular flights to Istanbul with Turkish Airlines. The data collected for the first half of 2010 actually showed a 14% increase in traffic to Turkey.
According to the data, there was a 16% decline in outbound traffic from Ben-Gurion International Airport on British Airlines in June, apparently due to the airline's strike, which lead to the cancelation of more than ten London-Tel Aviv-London flights last month.
A total of some 983,000 international passengers flew in and out of Ben-Gurion International Airport in June, an increase of 9% compared to June 2009. During the first half of 2010, some five million international passengers passed through the airport, 14% more than the equivalent period last year. The data was compared to a period in 2009 with a decline in passenger traffic due to Operation Cast Lead and the recession.
As for specific airlines during the first half of this year: El Al marked a 10% increase in passenger traffic between January and June 2010, compared to the equivalent period last year; Lufthansa's passenger traffic was 24% higher; Continental marked a 4% increase; Alitalia had 45% more passengers; Austrian Airlines marked a 16% increase while Delta's passenger traffic decreased by 4%.
The United States is the leading destination for Ben-Gurion International Airport's inbound and outbound passengers, with upwards of 727,000 departing and arriving passengers, an increase of 10%; Germany was the second most popular destination, with 430,000 incoming and outgoing passengers, up 21%; more than 385,000 incoming and outgoing passengers traveled to Italy, a 35% increase; 361,000 passengers flew to and from Britain, a 4% decline while 359,000 incoming and outgoing passengers flew to France, a 7% increase as compared to the previous year.
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