On video: Passenger Hall, Netavg / Yoav Itiel
Low-cost companies that fly to Israel made headlines in recent days, when Rainier announced the suspension of flights to Israel.
This, shortly after she renewed them.
Visair, for its part, announced that it will charge passengers who order plane tickets from now on a financial supplement, due to operating flights from Terminal 3 instead of Terminal 1.
Admittedly, since the beginning of the war, most, if not all, foreign airlines have stopped flying to Israel and most of them have not yet returned here.
But the welfare companies know how to make headlines because they are the companies of "your people".
Those who follow the airport authority's data can learn that the three leading airlines at the Ben Gurion port, Weizair, Ryanair and EasyJet, are the ones that have enabled millions of Israelis, every year, to go on vacations in Europe at prices that almost anyone could afford.
This is mainly if you ordered tickets a long time in advance, agreed to fly only with a carry-on bag, gave up on reserving a seat and also brought a sandwich from home.
Because if you ordered during the peak seasons and at the last minute - you discovered that the price differences compared to the regular companies are reduced and what remains is mainly the low service.
That is, the price soared, but the service did not improve accordingly.
An examination of the Airports Authority's data for 2023 shows that the market share of the leading low-cost airlines (Reynair, Visair and EasyJet) last year was approximately 18 percent of all passenger traffic at Ben Gurion Port, and if traffic to North America, the Far East, the Gulf countries are excluded And countries in Europe that these companies do not fly to, their market share is significantly higher.
In the last year their market share in Israel was 18%.
Vissair and Rainier/ShutterStock
El Al is taking advantage of the situation to make the rates more expensive
Since the start of the war, these companies have stopped flying to Israel.
Rainair is back, not to all destinations, but has already announced that it is stopping flights for the next few months.
Visaire has announced that it is returning from next month.
EasyJet, which was the first airline to arrive in Israel, has not yet announced when it will return.
Maybe in the spring, as the lyrics say.
Rainair claims that it is stopping the flights to Israel because the closing of Terminal 1, from which the flights of the airlines operated, causes it to increase its expenses.
This claim is mostly ridiculous, since the port tax in Terminal 3 is about 10 dollars higher than the one paid by passengers from Terminal 1 and this extra charge is ultimately paid by the passengers and not the airlines.
Moreover, at the time of the corona, Terminal 1 was closed, the airlines flew from Terminal 3 and no tweets were heard.
Moreover, it would have been simpler to say that due to additional costs, the price is being raised, as Visair announced.
But Rainier preferred to announce the suspension of flights.
This is when the industry believes that the reason for the cancellation is different.
A senior official at the Airports Authority points out that the port taxes in Israel are among the lowest in the world, and in any case, the passengers pay them, through the airlines, but not the airlines themselves.
"The foreign airlines have an insurance problem and some also have a political problem and problems with the air crews who are afraid to fly to Israel. When their plane landed in Israel and there were alarms, the crew did it in their pants.
Therefore there is difficulty in manning the planes.
So they looked for an excuse."
The same source also said that the Ministry of Transportation's intentions to instruct the Airport Authority to continue collecting low costs from the airlines, even when they operate from Terminal 3, will not stand up to legal scrutiny. "There is definitely a basis for a lawsuit against the Airport Authority if Such companies will receive a discount and other companies will not," he added.
More in Walla!
Guide: which airlines fly to Israel, which return and which really don't
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"Port taxes in Israel are among the lowest in the world."
The tax at Terminal 3 is $10 higher than Terminal 1/ShutterStock
So should the activity of the welfare societies in Israel be eulogized?
Muni Bar, chairman of the TUI tourism corporation, regrets that the foreign airlines, as well as the cruise companies, have stopped flights to Israel and regrets especially that the El Al company is taking advantage of the situation to raise the prices.
"The Israeli aviation market is a good market.
It's a market that flies all year round, especially because Israel is under siege and we can't go abroad with the car. As soon as the situation stabilizes or when the war is over, the airlines will return here. When will that happen? Probably around October, depending on the situation. Also the cruise companies that have started making cruises All activity in Israel was stopped, and I believe they will return here. Before the war started, large passenger ships started arriving in Israel with reasonable frequency. Now everything has stopped.
The Ministry of Tourism stopped subsidizing the foreign airlines, and "killed" tourism to Eilat.
Ramon/Reuben Castro Airport
Ramon's white elephant
Anyone who examines the activity of the "international" Ramon airport, discovers that, except for a few private planes that arrive from abroad, all air traffic to or from it is domestic traffic by the Israir and Arkia airlines. There are no international flights and also the airlines that arrived en masse until recently Corona, they stopped flying to it and effectively turned it into a white elephant. The reasons for this are many and the main one is the termination of the Ministry of Tourism's subsidy to the airlines.
In the past, in order to promote tourism from Europe to Israel, the Ministry of Tourism gave a subsidy to the foreign airlines for every passenger who lands in Eilat, including Israeli passengers The hoteliers in Eilat went to tourism fairs in Europe, gave a sea of benefits to tourists and the Ministry of Tourism allocated about 30-40 million shekels per season to subsidize the flights.
But then it became clear that a large part of the tourists coming from Europe do not stay in Eilat at all, but cross the border to Taba, or To Jordan, this is because the prices of staying there are significantly cheaper than in Eilat.
At the same time, the Jordan Tourism Authority also decided to subsidize the flights from Europe to the airport in Aqaba. The subsidy it gave was double and more than the one given by the Israeli Ministry of Tourism and thus in fact the fate of the Bermon field was decided to become an elephant white.
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