In a recent statement, India’s official carrier Air India announced that it will be doubling the number of flights on Tel Aviv-New Delhi to six per week in the month of April. Given the increase in passenger traffic on the Tel Aviv-New Delhi route, the carrier which started with three flights a week, has now increased the number to six. However, there will be no operations on the route on Friday; it is because Israeli Jews observe Sabbath, a day of religious observance and abstinence from work.
In terms of occupancy, the carrier has seen an increase of 79 per cent. As per records, Air India carried 1, 02,000Â passengers in the year 2019 as compared to 57,000 passengers in the year 2018, stated Pankaj Tiwari, its country head in Israel. Further he added that every flight from Tel Aviv has almost 50 per cent of passengers travelling beyond Delhi to domestic destinations within India and international destinations including Singapore, Thailand, Australia, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka and Nepal, a press release issued by Air India said.
Besides, it has been significant to note that the national carrier has become the first commercial flight to fly to Israel over Saudi Arabia and Oman in March 2018. The access to Saudi and Omani airspace has helped the airline to shorten the flight path by almost two hours, thereby lowering the fuel cost and reduction in fares.The direct flight services has also resulted in increase in tourism and also facilitating the travel of the business community
