New: Direct flights to Copenhagen

Danish airline introduces direct service after decade-long hiatus in flights to Scandinavian states

Reuters | Published: 10.31.10, 16:44

A Danish airline will fly from Tel Aviv to Copenhagen and back three times a week for a price beginning at $366, after a hiatus of nearly a decade in direct service to Scandinavian countries.

Cimber Sterling's management says it has already sold most of the tickets available for the next three months to tourists from various Scandinavian countries.

Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov said the new service portends "the return of veteran tourists who abandoned Israel during the second intifada, including those from Scandinavian countries".

Both Sas and El Al flew direct to Sweden, Norway, Finland, and the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) until terror attacks grew frequent in Israel in October of 2000. Arkia also offered charter flights in the summer.

But after the service was halted, flight time extended from some four and a half hours to around nine, depending on the stops along the way.

According to data collected by the Tourism Ministry, a leap in Scandinavian tourists has occurred this year, and numbers are predicted to increase by an additional 25% as soon as Cimber begins its direct service.

In the time period between January and September 2010, some 47,400 tourists from Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark visited Israel, a 16% in comparison to 2009 and a 19% increase when compared to 2008.