As expected, July 2016 saw an increase in passenger and airplane traffic at Ben Gurion Airport - the Israel Airports Authority (IAA) reports. In July, 1,925,000 passengers passed through Ben Gurion Airport, a 9% rise compared with July 2015. Air traffic to and from Israel in July rose 7%, to 12,684 planes, compared with July 2015.
In January-July 2016, the numbers of passengers passing through the airport reached almost 9.3 million, compared with about 8.5 million in the corresponding period last year, constituting a 9% increase.
The leading airline in terms of passenger traffic remains El Al Israel Airlines Ltd. (TASE: ELAL), with a 12% increase from last July with over 606,000 passengers. Arkia Airlines Ltd. and Israir Airlines and Tourism Ltd. were the second and third most popular airlines: 115,000 passengers flew with Arkia in July, a 35% rise compared with July 2015. Israir had almost 83,000 passengers in July 2016, a 32% rise compared with July last year.
The foreign airline with the largest number of passengers was Turkish Airlines, despite the events that followed the Israel-Turkey reconciliation agreement: the Istanbul airport terrorist attack and the failed coup in Turkey. More than 77,000 passengers flew with Turkish Airlines last July, a 4% rise from July 2015.
easyJet was in second place after Turkish Airlines with 61,000 passengers, an 11.5% rise from July last year. The Russian airline Aeroflot had a similar number of passengers, about 61,000, which constitutes a 40% increase. 46,800 people flew with Lufthansa, a 9% rise from last July; British Airways had almost 29,000 passengers, a 10% drop from July 2015.
While these numbers reflect the increased flights offered by Israeli airlines during the summer vacation, in terms of the overall passenger numbers in 2016, Turkish Airlines was the second most popular airline after El Al: from January to July, it had over 500,000 passengers - a 12.6% rise compared with the corresponding period last year.
Greece - the leading destination
Where did Israelis fly to in July? The leading destination, with over 180,000 Israeli visitors, was Greece, a 6.4% rise compared with the number of Israelis who flew to Greece in July last year.
While Turkey was the number two travel destination, most passengers only used it as a connection to other places worldwide: 167,000 passengers landed in Turkey, reflecting a 2.6% decrease compared with July 2015.
The number three destination for Israelis in July was the US, with 140,000 passengers; Italy and Germany followed, with 130,000 passengers each.
Destinations with a 30% increase in passengers, compared with June and 40% increase from last July included Bulgaria, Cyprus, China, Ethiopia and Georgia.
In January-July 2016, over 851,000 Israelis flew to Turkey, with about 85% of them immediately continuing to other destinations. 837,000 flew to the US, almost 700,000 to Germany and about 638,000 to Italy.
In terms of the first stopover, since the beginning of 2016, 466,000 passengers have flown to Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris, 450,000 to Istanbul's Ataturk Airport, 411,000 to JFK Airport in New York and 385,000 passengers to Rome's Fiumicino Airport.
A decrease was noted in domestic flight traffic: 44,500 passengers in last July, 3.25% less than in July 2015. Plane traffic diminished accordingly: 494 domestic flights, compared with 552 in July last year.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 10, 2016
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