The Airports Authority announced that today (Wednesday, January 24th, 2024) approximately 20,900 passengers will pass through Ben Gurion Airport on 122 incoming and outgoing international flights. A total of about 10,900 passengers left today on international flights, and about 10,000 passengers will enter Israel.
It should be noted that according to data published by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), international tourism is expected to fully recover to pre-pandemic levels in 2024, preliminary estimates indicate a growth that approaches the percentage of tourism that existed before the pandemic in 2019.
According to CCTV, the UNWTO’s first World Tourism Barometer of the year shows an estimated 1.3 billion international travelers per year in 2023, which is about 88% of pre-pandemic numbers.
Although some foreign airlines canceled their flights to Israel, there are also those that operate as usual, and are returning their flights to Israel as was before the war. The foreign airlines currently operating in Israel are: Ethiopian Airlines, Fly Dubai, Etihad, Red Wings, Azimuth, Uzbekistan Airways, High Sky and Hainan.
Today (Wednesday) the airline giant Air France will land in Israel after a break of more than three months in which it suspended its flights due to the war.
Also, tomorrow (Thursday) the Cypriot airline TUS will return to Israel, which will initially operate 3 weekly flights. The flights will be operated by the company’s Airbus A320 aircraft.
The national airline of Poland will also return to Israel on January 28 and will operate with 4 weekly flights until February 17. Starting February 18, it will return to operating a daily flight that will offer an early morning departure and a late evening return allowing for a full day’s stay in Warsaw.