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As the demand for vacations in the Holy Land continues to rise, carriers from Europe and Scandinavia are adding extra flights and new routes into Tel Aviv. Lufthansa, which already offers customers 14 weekly flights on the Frankfurt-Tel Aviv route, will add a fifth weekly flight on its Munich-Tel Aviv route beginning in April. Lufthansa resumed operating the Munich-Tel Aviv route in April 2009, after a six-year hiatus.
Beginning in March, Lufthansa will also operate wide-bodied Airbus 340-300 planes on the Munich-Tel Aviv route. The Airbus 340-300 carries 221 passengers, compared with the 108 seats on the Boeing 737-800, which it currently operates on the route.
Lufthansa will also add 80 more seats on the night flight between Frankfurt and Tel Aviv, by operating the 306 seat Airbus 340-600. The airline will also begin operating the Boeing 747-400 on the morning flight on the route.
Budget carrier easyJet, which successfully launched an inaugural route into Tel Aviv from London’s Luton Airport, last November announced this week plans to add a Geneva-Tel Aviv route from 30 August 2010 as part of an expansion of its network. The low-cost carrier will operate 4 weekly flights between Geneva and Tel Aviv on Sundays, Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays, leaving Geneva at 12:45 local time (arrival Tel Aviv 17:50) and leaving Israel at 18:40 (landing in Geneva at 22:15). One way fares will start as low as 68 euro (from Tel Aviv) and the return leg as low as 71 euro (including taxes).
The six weekly flights between London Luton and Tel Aviv have a load factor of 90%, with about 25,000 passengers flying in the period November 2009 – January 2010.
Norwegian Air Shuttle, another low cost airline and Scandinavia’s second-largest airline, has also announced plans to inaugurate a weekly Stockholm-Tel Aviv route in March 2010. This flight will be the first regularly scheduled flight between Israel and Scandinavia, thereby offering tourists the opportunity to reach Israel directly and at lower cost, without changing planes in Europe. Direct charter flights do ply the Israel-Scandinavia route in the winter, flying tourists seeking winter sunshine in the Red Sea resort of Eilat into Ovda airport in the south of the country.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
