Hopes for a recovery in travel from Israel – Airlines restart
With the ceasefire between Israel and Iran, Ben Gurion International Airport in Israel has been put into operation.
As a result, airlines are restarting their flight schedules. Already, in addition to the Israeli airlines (El Al, Arkia, Israir), Fly Dubai has resumed its routes to Israel, as have Blue Bird, TUS, Cyprus Airways, and the Chinese Hainan Airlines. Etihad and Ethiopian Airlines have also decided to resume routes.
To complete the picture, the following are estimated dates for the resumption of airline flights to Israel, based on the data currently available, from the Israeli Ministry of Tourism:
-By June 30: Lot, KLM, Ethiopian Airlines,
-By July 06: Air France, By July 13: Air Europa
-By July 31: Air India, Lufthansa, Austrian, Brussels Airlines, Eurowings, ITA Airways, United
-By August 31: Delta
-By September 7: Transavia France
-By September 8: Aegean, Air Canada
-By September 15: Wizz Air
-By September 30: Air Baltic
-By October 25: British Airways, EasyJet, Swiss, Iberia Express, Ryanair
In any case, several of the above dates are expected to be accelerated if the achieved ceasefire is consolidated.
It is noted that Aegean Airlines, which announced the suspension of all its flights to and from Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport until September 8, 2025, as well as its flights to Beirut, Amman, and Erbil, had initially canceled its flights to Tel Aviv until July 13.
According to Ben Gurion Airport data, for the year 2024, our country, with 1.82 million passengers, holds the first place in passenger traffic (to and from) the said airport, recording an increase of 4.12%. This traffic corresponds to 13.15% of the airport’s total passenger traffic. The USA follows with 9.52%, Cyprus 7.74%, UAE 6.42%, France 6.16%, Italy 6.11%, etc.
Also, regarding international traffic at Ben Gurion Airport in 2024 with direct connections, the first destination is Athens with 973,630 passengers (to and from), recording an increase of 23.41% compared to 2023. This number accounts for 7.01% of the total passenger traffic at Ben Gurion Airport. They are followed by Larnaca with 6.21%, Dubai 5.42%, Paris 4.74%, New York 3.81%, etc.
In the same ranking, with direct connections, are Rhodes airport with 2.05%, Heraklion with 1.68%, Thessaloniki with 0.83%, Corfu with 0.43%, Mykonos with 0.25%, Kos with 0.20%, Santorini with 0.13%, Sitia with 0.09%, Araxos with 0.06%, Mytilene with 0.05%, Karpathos with 0.05%, of the total passenger traffic of 13,879,671 passengers in 2024 (reduced by 34.19% compared to 2023).
It is also noted that the above direct connections to Greek destinations, in addition to El Venizelos Airport with an increase of 23.41%, changes compared to 2023 were recorded for Rhodes Airport 0.73%, Heraklion -13.28%, Thessaloniki -30.54%, Corfu 21.76%, Mykonos -26.7%, Kos -18.06%, Santorini 2.88%, Araxos -38.47%, Karpathos -10.25%.
Tourist inflows to our country from Israel recorded an increase in the first quarter of 2025 by 85.7%, compared to the same period in 2024 (75,389 from 40,600 visitors), while in 2024 they also recorded an increase of 29.5% compared to 2023 (620,805 from 479,163), according to data from the Bank of Greece.
(*) The information comes from the Office of Economic and Commercial Affairs in Israel
