Direct travel from Moscow to Tel Aviv on the rise

Report also states main destination for and origin of flights was Paris’s Charles de Gaulle Airport, with a total of 55,137 passengers, 59% increase.

By RON FRIEDMAN
airplane (photo credit: AP)
airplane
(photo credit: AP)
There has been a 40 percent increase in direct air travel from Moscow to Tel Aviv compared to last year and a 60% rise in direct travel from Moscow to Eilat, Israir reported on Tuesday.
The reason for the increase, according to Israir, is the summery weather conditions experienced in Israel this winter.
“At Israir we see a significant rise in incoming tourism from Moscow to Tel Aviv. We predict that the number of nightly stays in Tel Aviv hotels by Russian tourists will reach 320,000 compared to 230,000 last year. The sharp rise in hotel stays indicates an increase of 40% in incoming tourists from Moscow to Tel Aviv,” said Dori Shoshan, Israir’s deputy director general in charge of marketing.
“Since October we have also seen a 60% increase in tourists coming from Moscow to Eilat. There is a range of reasons for the increase, but it seems like the main reason is the weather. The weather in Moscow is cold, very cold, ranging from 7º-3º below zero [Centigrade] in the past few weeks. The weather in Israel, which reaches 28º-30º during the day, is ideal for tourists arriving from cold countries. We anticipate that the trend will continue.”
Israir operates four weekly flights between Moscow and Tel Aviv and two weekly flights between Moscow and Eilat.
Israel Aviation Authority figures show that there has been a total increase of 10.45% in international flights to and from Israel compared to last November, with a total of 811,175 passengers arriving at and leaving from Ben-Gurion Airport.
On domestic flights 68,399 passengers passed through Ben-Gurion Airport this month, compared with 42,817 in November 2009, an increase of 59.79%, according to the IAA’s monthly aviation summary.
The report also stated that the main destination for and origin of flights was Paris’s Charles de Gaulle Airport, with a total of 55,137 passengers, an increase of 7.68% compared to the previous November.
The country with the highest volume of activity, according to the report, was the United States, with 122,811 passengers, constituting 15.13% of all activity.
Of the leading countries, the highest growth relative to last November was recorded in passenger traffic to and from Ukraine, Bulgaria and Russia.