Low cost flights to Israel push the boundaries of no frills travel

It seems nowhere is off-limits when it comes to the widening horizons of low-cost airlines, having reported at the start of this year on Air X’s new low cost flights between the UK and Malaysia. In July last year it was reported that Israel’s Tourism ministry and easyJet and Ryanair had initiated talks with the hope of bringing low cost air travel to Israel within 2 years.
However last week it seems no frills travel to Israel could be closer than previously thought, following news from Israeli news source Haaretz.com that the director-general of the Transport Ministry, Gideon Siterman, flew to London last week to meet easyJet and British-based bmi. EasyJet executives presented their terms under which they would enter the Israeli market. Bmi’s chairman also requested a meeting with Siterman to discuss Israel’s policies on aviation.

Successful open skies agreements with any of these airlines could spell trouble for Israel’s El Al (LY) airline which was partially privatised back in 2004. The second largest airline in Britain, bmi has a 12% share of all takeoffs and landings at Heathrow Airport in London. It has a 42-plane fleet of relatively new jets, and runs 1,700 flights a week. EasyJet operates frequent scheduled services for leisure and business passengers and serves more than 200 routes between more than 65 European airports. The airline is due to receive new planes in 2008, and is on the look out for new destinations.

EasyJet incidentally, today opened the doors to its new bright orange head office at London Luton airport. Hanger 89, formally belonging to Britannia/TUI, in addition to over 30,000 sq ft of office space, H89 can house three Airbus 319s/Boeing 737s at any one time, giving the airline much-needed hangar space at London Luton. Currently negotiations between Israeli and British officials over aviation policy have hit a snag with the inability of U.K. officials to promise mutuality for Israeli carriers.

Along with the thousands of Jews that travel to Israel annually, Israel hopes plans for a future Michelin guide to Israel can encourage a different kind of tourist to come here, to be developed in conjunction with the Tourism Ministry it is a step towards attracting an audience which spends money. Tourism in Israel is a key element in the future prosperity of Israel and they have to compete with other countries to attract budget airlines, thus benefiting from the visitors they bring. With a notable increase in the numbers of British buying Israeli property new low cost airline routes into Israel could only serve to further strengthen this trend.

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