Low-cost airlines continued to increase their market share of passengers on international flights to and from Israel at Ben Gurion Airport in January 2020, the Israel Airport Authority reports. The number of passengers flown by low-cost airline Ryanair in January totaled 96,500, 128% more than in January 2019. Wizz Air flew 101,000 passengers, 11% more than in the corresponding month last year, and easyJet, the most long-standing low-cost airline in Israel, flew 104,500 passengers.
January is always a weak month for tourism, but nevertheless highlights the trend in Israeli civil aviation towards low-cost airlines, with the three leading foreign low-cost airlines jointly accounting for 20% of passenger traffic in January. El Al's passenger traffic totaled 377,000 in January, 6% more than in January 2019.
Low cost airlines and El Al were not the only ones to post gains in January. Turkish Airlines had the fifth most passengers in January, 85,600, 18% more than in January 2019, followed by United Airlines with 60,000 passengers 23% more than in January 2019.
Israir achieved particularly impressive results: 41,200 passengers, 97% more than in January last year, but Arkia Airlines' passenger traffic declined 9% to 17,600.
Passenger traffic in January totaled 1.58 million, 10.3% more than in the same month last year. The Israeli airlines had 27.5% of this total: 24% for El Al, 2.6% for Israir, and 1.01% for Arkia.
Where did they fly to?
Where do people fly to from Ben Gurion Airport? The leading country is Turkey, mostly as a stopover for connection flights. The second most popular destination was the US, with 20% more passengers from Ben Gurion Airport landing there than in January 2019. Next on the list were France, Germany, and the UK, where the number of people landing from Ben Gurion Airport grew by 15% in comparison with January last year.
Passenger traffic on flights from Ben Gurion Airport to Ramon Airport near Eilat has totaled 74,000 passengers on 1,032 flights since flights were transferred to Ben Gurion Airport after Sde Dov Airport was closed down in July 2019. Arkia accounted for 76.8% of this traffic, and Israir for the rest.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on February 5, 2020
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