Tel Aviv will be the first non-European destination for the Danish company, which operates flights to 54 destinations across Europe. The new route will be active three times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays and will commence operations on November 2010.

“The Tel Aviv route is designated for businessmen and tourists who want to visit Scandinavia,” Cimber Sterling Vice President Lars Bording said.

“We are the only company that will fly between Denmark and Israel during the fall and winter and we expect that this will meet the needs of businessmen and tourists who want to visit these exciting destinations. Israel, in addition to being a unique destination, is the first country we are flying to outside of European borders.”

The airline’s flights will depart from Copenhagen to Tel Aviv in the morning and noon hours and leave for the Danish capital in the noon and evening hours.

[via Ynet]

El Al CEO Eliezer Shkedi said, “This is a breakthrough and good news for tourists entering and leaving Israel. El Al’s scheduled flight, inaugurated today for the first time, will boost the number of number of tourists, improve service, and bring the periphery closer to the center of the country to everyone’s benefit. We believe that El Al’s regular service between Tel Aviv and Eilat will substantially boost both domestic and international tourism to Eilat.”

To serve Israelis and tourists making follow-on flights to El Al’s international destinations, the airline will provide shuttles between Terminal 1 and the international terminal, Terminal 3, at Ben Gurion Airport. Check-in for the follow-on flights will be carried out at Eilat Airport.

To mark the first month of the launch, El Al is offering special single-segment fares of NIS 189 based on a booklet of 14 midweek flights for residents of central Israel, and NIS 149 per segment for residents of Eilat who buy the 14-midweek flights booklet

El Al is not yet offering market-breaking fares to Eilat. Although both Arkia Airlines Ltd. and Israir Airlines and Tourism Ltd. charge up to NIS 400 one-way fares to Eilat, they both make dozens of flights every day between Ben Gurion Airport and Eilat, compared with three daily flights by El Al.

In addition, Arkia CEO Gadi Tepper launched the Arkia Express service a few months ago, which offers starting fares at NIS 80, not including luggage costs, for advance reservations.

The options: Airlines flying between Tel Aviv and Eilat

Arkia: Offers flights every couple of hours between Eilat and Tel Aviv’s domestic Sde Dov Airport as well as two/three a day from Ben Gurion Airport

Israir: Offers slightly less flights, but still very regular through the day between Eilat and Sde Dov, as well as less frequent flights to Ben Gurion Airport.

El Al: New to the domestic market, El Al is now flying two/three times a day between Ben Gurion Airport and Eilat. These flights have been designed to fit in with their international schedules and the extra Eilat leg is heavily discounted for passengers flying onwards after taking an El Al flight to Israel.

[via Globes]

The airline also said it would replace its jet with a larger model plane due to the unusually high demand for the flights, Haaretz has learned.

Originally, Korean Air planned to use the Boeing 747 Combi, which allows for both passenger and cargo transport, for flights to Israel. Yet the company elected to switch to a larger jet – the Boeing 747-400 wide body model – after the airline’s sales offices fielded a larger-than-expected number of calls for ticket orders. The 747-400 can carry 100 more passenger than the Combi.

“All the flights during the holiday season are filled almost to capacity and there are flights today that have no more seats remaining,” Saymi Zeiderman, the director of the Turbo travel agency, said.

[via Haaretz]

For more information on flights to Israel, check out our page: flights to Israel.

The airline will, by the end of the summer operate 9 flights per week between Israel and Germany.

The new routes between Cologne and Munich will start operating on March 29 and March 30 respectively. Whilst the Dusseldorf route will start on June 11.

Like other low-cost airlines, most tickets are sold online via the airline’s website. Although Tel Aviv does not yet appear on the list of destinations on the website, the airline’s flight schedule for March does appear on the Israel Airports Authority website.

There are no currently regularly scheduled flights between Israel and Scandinavia, and Israelis seeking to go there have to switch planes elsewhere in Europe, which increases the fare. There are seasonal charter flights between Israel and Scandinavia, as Scandinavians are one of Eilat’s tourist mainstays.

Source: Globes

See our page about flights to Israel for more options.

The document states that, during a visit to Spain and Portugal a few weeks ago, Minister of Tourism Stas Misezhnikov met TAP’s president, who said that he wanted to resume operating the route and establish direct aviation links between the two countries. The measure was part of a tourism agreement signed in January between Misezhnikov and Portugal’s Minister of Tourism Bernardo Trindade.

Under the agreement, representatives from TAP are due to begin talks in a few weeks with the Israel Civil Aviation Authority to arrange the operations. The Lisbon-Tel Aviv route is planned to begin operating toward the end of the year.

Source: Globes

El Al and Swiss International Airlines already fly between Tel Aviv and Geneva under a code-sharing agreement. The Israel Civil Aviation Authority and the Swiss Federal Office for Civil Aviation also recently signed a new agreement allowing more carriers to fly between the two countries.

Israir Airlines and Tourism Ltd. recently announced that it plans to launch a Tel Aviv-Basel route this spring.

According to the Civil Aviation Authority, easyJet carried 17,000 passengers on its London-Tel Aviv route in November-December 2009.

In the past few months, the Civil Aviation Authority has been in talks with its counterparts in European countries on an open skies agreement, which would allow European and Israeli carriers to fly more freely between destinations.

Quotes: Globes

The ships will dock at Haifa and Ashdod ports in the coming months, bringing with them an estimated 40,000 tourists.

The first ship to come to Israel this September is the luxurious Vision of the Seas, owned by Royal Caribbean. The ship, which hosts up to 2,500 guests in each cruise, will visit Israel nine times during September-November as part of its Holy Land Cruise.

The recently inaugurated Celebrity Equinox of Celebrity Cruises will soon launch a series of nine 13-14 day sailings in the Mediterranean under the title of “Ancient Empires.” Like Vision of the Seas, Celebrity Equinox will also dock at Haifa and Ashdod harbors.

The two vessels are expected to bring some 40,000 tourists for one-day trips to Israel.

On October 12 the Crystal Serenity will arrive in Israel as part of its round-the-world cruise.

Source: Ynet

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