Ryanair expands into Israel with three new
Ryanair has announced plans to start flying to and from Israel to a number of destinations in Central Europe.
The airline is to introduce three new routes from Eilat Ovda airport in the south of the country to Budapest, Hungary, Kaunas, Lithuania and Krakow, Poland.
Ryanair estimates the new routes , which commence in November, will deliver about 40,000 passengers a year.
The company’s chief commercial officer David O’Brien said Ryanair was continuing to negotiate with the Israeli authorities to increase the number of flights it offers in the country.
The airline recently sought to acquire Cyprus Airways as part of a move to allow it to fly from there to Israel, Turkey and other countries in the eastern Mediterranean and Middle East. It said in January that it intended to expand in the region despite the flag carrier being closed down.
Budapest Airport’s extensive route network development continues with the significantannouncement of Ryanair’s first link to Israel. The Hungarian gateway has confirmed thenoteworthy addition of the ultra-low cost carrier’s (ULCC) operation to Eilat-Ovda Airport, commencing a twice-weekly service from 7 November. While facing no direct competition on theairport pair, its arrival in the Israeli market at Budapest gives Ryanair an immediate 13% share of flights and seats across all routes to the Middle Eastern country, which will now be served by three carriers.
The Hungarian gateway recorded a significant 20% jump in Israeli visitors in 2014, and it expectsto serve considerably more passengers this year than the 230,000 carried between the twocountries last year. With the addition of the Eilat-Ovda link to existing Tel Aviv services, the CentralEastern European airport will now offer 16 weekly flights to the two Israeli airports
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