All the news about Israeli tourism

According to data from the Israel Airports Authority, a total of 1.2 million passengers passed through Ben Gurion Airport during July 2009, a fall of 2.7 percent on last July.  There was an improvement in passenger traffic to Turkey during July, with a fall of 36 percent; this compared to a 50 percent fall in the first six months of the year. Lufthansa recorded the largest increase in passenger traffic.

Even though the boycott on Turkey has apparently now been broken; during July, Greece recorded the largest increase in travelers compared to last year, up by 52 percent; with a total of about 48,000 Israelis traveling to and from Greece.  The United States continues to be the destination with the highest volume of traffic, while Germany also recorded an increase of 6 percent.

During the month a total of 106,000 Israelis departed for Turkey, down by 36 percent on the previous year, however in the last few days passenger traffic increased with 32,000 Israelis departing for Turkey.  Based on the data for the first week of August, it is anticipated that the fall in passenger traffic by the end of the summer will be measured in single percentage figures.

El Al’s traffic in July was down by 5 percent compared to last year; while Sun d’Or recorded an increase in passenger traffic of 4 percent. In total, Israeli airlines flew about half a million passengers during the month, an increase of 1.7 percent compared to July 2008.

The largest increase in traffic was recorded by the largest foreign airline in Israel, Lufthansa, which recorded an 11.2 percent increase in operations.  Lufthansa which operates 18 flights a week on routes between Israel and Germany, flew a total of 41,000 passengers during July and once again became the leading foreign airline in Israel, replacing Continental Airlines which had been in first place for the last couple of months.

The rest of the European competition also recorded increases, although more moderate in their activity.  The data from the Israel Airports Authority reported that among the American airlines, Continental recorded a 2.6 percent fall, while Delta showed an increase of 4.7 percent.   US Airways, which only began operating flights on the 2nd July, flew a total of 13,000 passengers. In total, 140,000 Israelis departed for the United States, this was an increase of 12 percent on last July.