The steep decline in transportation from Israel to abroad continues: only 54.3 thousand departed by air in August, compared with 1.1 million in the corresponding period last year
Ben Gurion Airport is empty of people
Photo:
Yehuda Peretz
Influenced by the corona virus, in August only about 54.7 thousand Israelis went abroad, compared to 1.2 million in August 2019. This is according to data from the Central Bureau of Statistics. Of this, 54.3 thousand went by air, compared to 1.1 million in the corresponding period last year.
During the month of March, following the spread of the corona virus, many countries closed their international borders.
In Israel, even today, there is a two-week isolation obligation for returnees from most countries.
As a result, there has been a sharp decline in Israeli departures since March this year.
There are about 100,000 departures abroad in March this year, compared to more than half a million in March 2019. In April the departures fell to an all-time low with 3,000 departures and in April-July together there were only about 57,000 departures abroad.
This is compared to more than two million ports in the same period last year.
In addition, in August there were particularly low numbers of departures of Israelis abroad and returns from abroad, although there was a slight increase.
This month, as mentioned, there were about 54.7 thousand departures, of which 54.3 thousand departures were by air compared to 1.1 million in August 2019 and about two hundred departures were by land compared to 143.3 thousand in August last year.
Estimated data of Israelis living abroad and coming to Israel for "homeland visits" were also analyzed. These are people who have stayed abroad for more than 275 days in total in the past year and came to Israel no more than twice during the year.
Out of 54.7 thousand departures of Israelis abroad in August this year, 4,100 (7.6%) were of Israeli citizens living abroad and came to Israel to visit their homeland, compared with 2.6% in August 2019.
Meanwhile, under the influence of the corona, there were about 20.4 thousand visitor visits to Israel in August 2020, compared to 324.2 thousand in August 2019. In January-February 2020, even before the spread of the corona, there were 698.5 thousand visitor visits compared to 681.2 in the corresponding period in 2019. 2020, 87.2 thousand visitor entries were recorded, compared to 456.4 thousand in March 2019. In April-August 2020, 35.6 thousand visitor entries were recorded, compared to 1.9 million in the corresponding period in 2019.
