At the beginning of the Iron Sword War, most of the foreign airlines left Israel and very few foreign airlines remained that operated direct flights to and from Israel. Now, almost three months after the war began, several large and significant foreign airlines have announced their return to Israel – who is supposed to return and when? Tidying up.
The first airline group to announce that it will return to Israel is the Lufthansa Group, which includes Austrian, Swiss and Lufthansa. The three airlines will operate direct flights to Zurich, Vienna, Frankfurt and Munich, and in total will operate about 20 flights from Israel each week. The companies are expected to start operating in Israel as early as January 8.
The Lufthansa Group is expected to return to Israel in less than two weeks, Photo: Yehuda Ben Yattach
Romanian airline Tarom also announced its return to Israel, with the company initially expected to operate two flights a week on the Bucharest-Tel Aviv route. The airline is expected to start flying to Israel as early as next week, on January 1, with flights expected to operate on Sundays and Thursdays.
Seychelles' airline Air Seychelles announced its return to Israel as early as February 6 and is expected to operate two weekly flights between Seychelles and Ben Gurion Airport. The Seychelles airline will also offer flights to Mauritius with a short stop in Mahe.
Air Seychelles plane, photo: Ami Shumen
Greek airline Aegean announced yesterday that it would return to Israel in about two weeks. Aegean is expected to operate four flights a week on the Athens-Tel Aviv route from January 11. In January, the airline is expected to publish its flight schedule for February, which is expected to be broader in the number of flights and possibly in destinations.
According to various sources, the American airline United is expected to return to Israel at the beginning of February, but the company has not yet made an official announcement on the matter. Currently, Delta and United have canceled all their flights to and from Israel by the end of March, so if United does return to Israel in early February, it is expected to be the first American airline to do so.
Flew to Israel since the beginning of the war, with a very short break, photo: Reuters
Many other airlines are currently examining the return to Israel. Small airlines are struggling to cope with insurance costs and trying to find solutions. At the same time, major European and Asian airlines are also examining the possibility of returning to Israel alongside the war, but at the moment there is no official announcement.
The foreign airlines currently operating in Israel are: Ethiopian Airlines, Fly Dubai, Etihad, Red Wings, Azimut, Uzbekistan Airways, High Sky and Hainan. At the same time, El Al, Israir and Arkia have been operating and operating non-stop since the first day of fighting.
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