Irish low-cost airline Ryanair Holdings plc announced at a press conference this morning that it is launching flights to Israel in November.
Ryanair will operate flights from Ovda near Eilat to Budapest (Hungary), Kaunas (Lithuania) and Krakow (Poland). The carrier will operate two weekly flights to each of these central and eastern European destination with tickets from €30 each way.
Ryanair chief commercial officer David O'Brien said, "We will strengthen our presence in Israel as time goes by. Eilat is a very unique tourist destination like Morocco and the Canary Islands and we are certain that we will fill the planes."
O'Brien also spoke about the sensitive security situation in the region, "There are security risks everywhere and we are aware of those in Israel. Four million tourists visit Israel each year and I don't see any problems."
Israel's Ministry of Tourism pushed for Ryanair to fly to Israel and in an exceptional step is paying a €45 subsidy for each tourist that airlines fly to Eilat.
Ryanair has been in talks to commence flights to Israel for several years after seeing the success of UK low-cost carrier EasyJet.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 7, 2015
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