Coming soon? Direct flights to Zanzibar
Photo: Einav Barazani
10 foreign airlines seek to fly to Israel
Implementation of Open Skies policy prompts foreign companies to submit requests to offer flights from Israel to a variety of new destinations around the world, including Portugal, Ivory Coast and Zanzibar.
Ten foreign airlines have submitted requests in recent weeks to operate flights from Israel
to a variety of new destinations following the implementation of the Open Skies policy.
"The significant increase in the number of requests filed by foreign airlines to fly to Israel from new destinations forces us to examine the procedures of the security checks conducted on passengers of foreign airlines in those airports," a Transportation Ministry source explained, noting that the Civil Aviation Authority was looking into the submitted requests favorably.
Defense officials from the Transportation Ministry will visit many airports in Europe in the coming days in order to examine the security arrangements in the requested destinations.
Unlimited Flights
Danny Sadeh
Agreement enables each country to operate 36 regular weekly flights, in addition to an unlimited number of flights on other routes between the two countries.
Ben-Gurion Airport. Everyone wants to land here (Photo: Gilad Kavalerchik)
Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz said last week that the Israeli public was already witnessing the wide variety of options to fly to Europe following the Open Skies agreement signed between Israel and the European Union.
"The Open Skies policy has stimulated the competition in the aviation industry in light of a significant growth in the number of airlines operating flights to and from Israel, a competition allowing the Israeli consumer to purchase flights to new destinations across Europe at extremely attractive prices, which save the consumer a lot of money."
Some of the requests submitted to the Civil Aviation Authority's approval are from relatively small companies which the Israeli audience is unfamiliar with. They include the British Thomson Airways, the Spanish Volotea, Ten Airways, France-based Europe Airpost, Romanian airline Blue Air and White Airways, which seeks to operate flights from Portugal due to the expected growth in Israelis' vacations in the country this coming summer.
Turkish airline Corendon has requested to offer flights to Bodrum and Dalaman in light of Israelis' return to Turkey's holiday resorts, and flights are also planned to Ivory Coast and the island of Zanzibar in Tanzania.
Several other airlines have asked to expand their activity from new destinations, including the Spanish Air Europa, the Dutch Transavia Airlines, easyJet and Wizz Air. The companies wish to increase the frequency of their flights from Israel and offer flights from other destinations in their countries.
An Italian airline is asking to operate flights from Palermo to Tel Aviv, two Romanian companies want to boost their activity to Bucharest, and the number of flights to Brussels is also expected to increase.
